GERMANY: Uncle Sahm

While Herbert Hoover was controlling food in occupied Belgium, Heinrich Sahm was official German administrator of food and community bodies in occupied Poland.

Herr Dr. Sahm is 6 ft. 6 in. tall. After the War he became for ten years Senate President of the Free City of Danzig, “World’s Tallest President.”

Last week Langer Heinrich (“Long Henry”) was enthusiastically chosen not Buürgermeister but Oberbür germeister (Lord Mayor or Chief Mayor) of Berlin in which there are some 20 district mayors. Always popular, Herr Dr. Sahm seemed last week especially to delight Berliners, his election producing two elephantine jokes heard everywhere:

No. 1. “Everything will be all right now —we have an Uncle Sahm!”

No. 2. “Chicago had a Big Bill, now we have a Long Henry!”

Berlin has had no Oberbürgermeister for the past five months, so long has it taken to liquidate the scandal of her last Lord Mayor, Gustav Boess, who resigned, although technically vindicated, after a trial for misconduct of Berlin’s fiscal affairs (TIME, Oct. 20, et ante). As famous in Berlin as U. S. oil’s “Little Black Bag” is the “Boess Fur Coat,” “bought” by Frau Boess for a tenth part of its value from the Sklarek Brothers, rascally civic uniform contractors.