Tuffy

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Tuffi's jump was artistically recorded on site on a hall wall on the Wupper.

Tuffi (* 1946 in India , † 1989 in Paris ) was an Asian elephant cow from the Althoff circus who jumped from the suspended suspension railway into the Wupper on July 21, 1950 at the age of four in Wuppertal .

history

Tuffi's parents belonged to the menagerie of an Indian prince . Tuffi's father was a bull elephant who was used for driven hunt, while Tuffi's mother served as a mount for the prince's sons.

The German circus Franz Althoff bought Tuffi in 1949. As the only elephant in the circus, Tuffy showed no fear of foreign people and cities, so Franz Althoff used it as an advertising attraction for his circus. Among other things, she took part in tram rides in various cities, drank from a holy water fountain in Altötting , transported crates of beer to scaffolding in Solingen, made a harbor tour in Duisburg and was with the city director of Oberhausen.

Tuffis Wupperfall

In 1950 the Althoff circus performed in Wuppertal. Only after some difficulties with the authorities was Althoff allowed to advertise his guest performance in Wuppertal with a ride on the suspension railway. On July 21, 1950, at 10:30 a.m., the young elephant boarded the number 13 suspension railway car in the Alter Markt station in Wuppertal-Barmen for a trip in the direction of Wuppertal-Elberfeld, for which five second-class tickets had previously been purchased, four for that Circus animal and one for the companion Franz Althoff. The car was overcrowded and when Tuffy tried to turn around, but couldn't, she climbed onto a seat that collapsed under her weight. It was pushed and pushed even more. Then Tuffy broke through the side wall in one "run-up" and fell into the Wupper. The later Berlin zoo director Heinz-Georg Klös , who was then a freelancer for the General-Anzeiger for Elberfeld-Barmen , wrote in his memoirs in 1997 that the suspension railway compartment in question was overcrowded with journalists. However, panic broke out after the elephant reacted excitedly to the squeaking of the train in a curve with trumpets, ear flaps and a turn towards the source of the noise.

The then twelve-year-old Harry, son of the circus director Franz Althoff, confirmed in the television program " Our Best - The Germans ' Favorite Places " ( ZDF ) in September 2006 that Tuffy in the second attempt - at the level of the then "elephant pharmacy", shortly before the station " Adlerbrücke ”- a window broke through and jumped from the suspension railway car about ten meters down into the Wupper, which at this point is less than 50 centimeters deep. Tuffy only suffered a few bruises on the bottom and was otherwise uninjured because she was hit in a muddy place. Harry Althoff said she was just lucky with the way she landed. His father Franz wanted to jump behind, but was held back by his son, who had already noticed that Tuffy had apparently "made" a light landing. The Althoffs had to continue their journey to the next stop, Adlerbrücke , and only then could they lead the elephant to the nearby circus square.

The Wupper between the Alter Markt and Adlerbrücke stations
Former elephant pharmacy at the Adlerbrücke stop

There were some injured in the car. Althoff and the responsible head of the traffic department of the Wuppertaler Stadtwerke , who had approved the trip, were sentenced to a fine of 450 D-Marks in court proceedings for “negligent transport risk and negligent bodily harm” . The suspension railway was unsuitable as a means of transport for elephants, according to the judgment of the court. At the beginning of the 1990s there was another circus advertisement in the suspension railway, this time with an alligator .

Curiosity without a photo

Although the wagon was manned by journalists and the elephant transport was a media event, no one took photos at the crucial moment out of panic. The well-known postcard motif with the falling elephant is a photo montage . The crash site between the stations age market and eagle bridge in Wuppertal is still marked by a painted elephant on a hall wall (see picture above). At that time, there happened to be a pharmacy called "Elefanten-Apotheke" near the crash site.

consequences

Tuffi as the mascot for the suspension railway express

In 1968 the Althoff circus disbanded. Tuffy moved with a group of animals to Cirque Alexis Gruss , where she stayed until her death in 1989. The former milk works Cologne-Wuppertal sold their milk products Tuffi under the name of the elephant from the suspension railway. Campina now sells Tuffi milk products .

Tuffi also plays a role in promoting Wuppertal's tourism. The Wuppertal tourist information center offers a range of souvenirs with tuffi motifs. The American blues singer Cory P. McDaniel set the event in the song Elephant Fall in Wuppertal . The Wuppertal public utilities chose Tuffi as the mascot for the suspension railway express , the suspension railway replacement service. In March 2016, a female elephant born in the Wuppertal Zoo was given the name Tuffi . It is the tenth elephant calf to be born there.

literature

Movie

Web links

Commons : Tuffi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Robert Franz: Once suspension railway and never again. 60 years ago: Elephant Tuffi survived the jump into the Wupper. In: WDR.de . July 22, 2010, archived from the original on July 22, 2010 ; accessed on July 24, 2020 (interview with Fatima Althoff).
  2. ↑ a b c Armin Himmelrath : Hype about Tuffi: The flying elephant of Wuppertal. In: one day on Spiegel Online . July 21, 2016, accessed July 24, 2020 .
  3. ^ Tuffy. In: tuffi-wuppertal.de. Archived from the original on November 1, 2013 ; accessed on July 24, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b Tuffi Chronicle. In: tuffiwuppertal.de. Retrieved July 24, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Andreas Boller: Tuffy once lived up to its name. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung . July 20, 2016, archived from the original on July 21, 2020 ; accessed on July 24, 2020 .
  6. ^ Heinz-Georg Klös : Friendship with animals. Pp. 48-55.
  7. ↑ Petra Haubner: July 21, 1950: The elephant Tuffy jumps out of the Wuppertal suspension railway. (mp3 audio; 1.6 MB; 3:36 minutes) In: SWR2 -Zeitwort. July 21, 2011, archived from the original on February 14, 2016 ; accessed on July 24, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Claudia Kasemann: The alligator on the Werther bridge. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung. August 6, 2016, archived from the original on August 10, 2016 ; accessed on July 24, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Stephan Oettermann: The curiosity of the elephant. An Elephantographia curiosa. P. 73.
  10. ↑ Ava Weis: Our all revolutionary: City tour through Friedrich Engels' Wuppertal on May 1st. In: engels-kultur.de. May 4, 2015, accessed July 24, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Imprint. In: tuffi.de. Tuffi Dairy Products, accessed July 24, 2020 .
  12. ^ Corinna Wolber: A Tuffi fan from America. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung. April 13, 2011, archived from the original on August 25, 2012 ; accessed on July 24, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Christian Licht: Wuppertal likes the new "Tuffi". In: WDR broadcast “Local Time Bergisches Land”. March 17, 2016, archived from the original on March 2, 2017 ; accessed on July 24, 2020 (with photo gallery).
  14. ↑ Tuffi now speaks Spanish too. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung. September 23, 2016, archived from the original on October 3, 2016 ; accessed on July 24, 2020 .