Real heroes are humble. A young police officer risked his life on Tuesday night to save a drowning man from the ice-cold Spree. Then he continued his service – as if nothing had happened. Later it turned out: The rescued (60) is a retired police officer.
By M. Behrendt, T. Beurich and D. Böttger
At around 1.20 a.m., passers-by noticed the man in the water at the Treskow Bridge. They alerted the police and fire brigade and threw a lifebuoy into the Spree.
The young chief of police is the first to arrive at the scene of the accident with his colleague. Without hesitation, he takes off his equipment and jumps into the water (temperature four degrees). With the lifebelt, he approaches the victim, who has already drifted under the jetty of a restaurant.
The drowning man’s clothes are soaked with water and the policeman cannot pull him ashore. While the firefighters who have meanwhile arrived are preparing the rescue from land, the officer holds the man and talks to him soothingly. A little later, both are safely on the shore.
The victim is taken to a hospital with hypothermia and is still in mortal danger. After a brief examination, the police superintendent gets into his police vehicle to get dry clothes in the office building on Karlstrasse – and to end his shift.
The injured person is a pensioner who used to work in this area himself. How and why he got into the water is unclear.
Benjamin Jendro, spokesman for the police union (GdP): “It’s good to know that we have such people in our ranks.”
