A video in which Emma Hartmann throws a swan off the Admiral Bridge made her a celebrated internet star overnight Photo: MarcStoryful/Marcy Mendelson
By Isabel Pancake
A video of her swan rescue campaign made her a celebrated internet star! Now Emma Hartmann from Kreuzberg has died at the age of 83.
In the summer she sold newspapers in front of the Prinzenbad and in the winter on the Admiralbrücke in Kreuzberg. This is how the senior citizen improved her pension – and became known throughout the neighborhood.
Emma Hartmann (83) braved wind and weather and regularly sold newspapers on the Admiralbrücke in Kreuzberg to supplement her pension Photo: Ufuk Ucta
Until January 2022 – then she suddenly knew all of Germany! A viral video showed the sprightly pensioner grabbing a swan that had landed on the bridge next to her stall with her bare hands and throwing it back into the Landwehr Canal. A real rescue operation! Hartmann explained at the time: “Cars and cyclists quickly overlook the birds. Then it becomes dangerous.” Not an isolated action: Grandma intervened about five to six times a year!
The late Emma Hartmann (83) is remembered at the Admiral Bridge in Kreuzberg Photo: Claudia Briel
Now the 83-year-old, whose children and grandchildren live in Russia, has died. A sign on the Admiral Bridge commemorates the neighborhood heroine: “Emma Hartmann has died. February 14, 1940 – October 7, 2023. She has been selling newspapers here at the bridge and Prinzenbad since 2004.”
She will definitely be remembered in Berlin for her courageous swan rescue campaign.