Berlin zoo unveils name of latest polar bear cub

By: The Associated Press Posted: Last Modified:

Advertisement

Advertise with us

BERLIN - It's Hertha.

Read this article for free:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/04/2019 (2679 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BERLIN – It’s Hertha.

Berlin’s Tierpark zoo has unveiled the much-anticipated name of its new star attraction, a 4-month-old polar bear cub.

Hertha, born on Dec. 1, is named after the German capital’s eponymous top league soccer club, which is sponsoring the animal.

The polar bear Tonja and her cub Hertha walk in their enclosure, after the announcing of the cub's name, at the Tierpark zoo in Berlin, Tuesday, April 2, 2019. The Berlin soccer club is the sponsor of the bear and decide for the name of the animal, who was born Dec. 1, 2018 at the Tierpark. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The polar bear Tonja and her cub Hertha walk in their enclosure, after the announcing of the cub's name, at the Tierpark zoo in Berlin, Tuesday, April 2, 2019. The Berlin soccer club is the sponsor of the bear and decide for the name of the animal, who was born Dec. 1, 2018 at the Tierpark. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

The club’s mascot — a brown bear — presented a ball with the cub’s name at the zoo Tuesday. Then mother, Tonja, and daughter gamboled into the enclosure to the delight of the assembled photographers.

Hertha played ball for the cameras, literally, before accidentally kicking it into the deep end of the moat. In a display of motherly love, Tonja retrieved the ball.

Berlin’s last celebrity polar bear, Knut, died prematurely from illness in 2011 at age 4. Several cubs born since failed to reach maturity.

Advertisement Advertise With Us

Report Error Submit a Tip

Advertisement

Learn more about Winnipeg Free Press Advertising solutions

More Stories

The polar bear Tonja and her cub Hertha walk in their enclosure, after the announcing of the cub's name, at the Tierpark zoo in Berlin, Tuesday, April 2, 2019. The Berlin soccer club is the sponsor of the bear and decide for the name of the animal, who was born Dec. 1, 2018 at the Tierpark. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Berlin zoo unveils name of latest polar bear cub

The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

Berlin zoo unveils name of latest polar bear cub

The Associated Press 2 minute read Tuesday, Apr. 2, 2019

BERLIN - It's Hertha.

Berlin's Tierpark zoo has unveiled the much-anticipated name of its new star attraction, a 4-month-old polar bear cub.

Hertha, born on Dec. 1, is named after the German capital's eponymous top league soccer club, which is sponsoring the animal.

The club's mascot — a brown bear — presented a ball with the cub's name at the zoo Tuesday. Then mother, Tonja, and daughter gamboled into the enclosure to the delight of the assembled photographers.

Read
Tuesday, Apr. 2, 2019
RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS The Keg Steakhouse and Bar had called Garry Street home for more than five decades.

Downtown Keg closes… to reopen nearby

Free Press staff 2 minute read Preview

Downtown Keg closes… to reopen nearby

Free Press staff 2 minute read Friday, Jul. 31, 2026

Downtown Winnipeg is without a Keg restaurant — for a couple of months, anyways.

The Keg Steakhouse and Bar vacated 115 Garry St. on Wednesday, after more than five decades at the location. It will open in a new Donald Street apartment tower this fall.

Its move comes after years of waiting. The DSM, at 185 Donald St., sat as a partially started apartment block after its developer stopped operating and sought creditor protection in April 2023. The developer began the project in 2019.

Carrington Real Estate took over in 2024. Part of the 14-storey site’s initial plans — pre-Carrington — was for the Keg to occupy the main floor.

Read
Friday, Jul. 31, 2026

Sci-fi, fantasy bookstore to land downtown

Ben Sigurdson 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:03 AM CDT

New bookstore alert! New bookstore alert!

On Tuesday at 10 a.m., Other Places Books is slated to open its doors at 436 Graham Ave., just a few doors down from mainstay Bison Books (424 Graham Ave.).

The bookstore’s focus will be science fiction and fantasy, and, says the website (opbooks.store), “will be a friendly, inclusive, and very queer space.” Other Places is the project of Didi Chanoch, who has been chronicling the bookstore’s progress on Bluesky (@didichanoch.northsky.social).

Other Places is the third genre-specific bookstore to open in Winnipeg in recent years. Raven’s End Books (1859 Portage Ave.) opened in 2024, specializing in the horror genre, while Bound to Please (995 McPhillips St.) kicked off selling books in the romance genre in February.

Chris Close photo Colson Whitehead

On the night table: Colson Whitehead

1 minute read Preview

On the night table: Colson Whitehead

1 minute read Yesterday at 2:02 AM CDT

Colson Whitehead

Author, Cool Machine

I’ve been reading Caroline Fraser. She has a book called Murderland about serial killers that came out last year. Her previous book, Prairie Fires, was a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She’s a new author for me, and I’m going through that biography now. I never read Wilder’s books, but I liked the TV show when I was a kid; it’s one of those books that’s about a person’s life, but also pulls back to get the larger cultural panorama of America, talking about frontier life and and prairie life — it’s really interesting.

Colson Whitehead will launch Cool Machine, the third book in his Harlem trilogy, on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Muriel Richardson Auditorium at WAG-Qaumajuq (300 Memorial Blvd.) in an event presented by McNally Robinson Booksellers.

Read
Yesterday at 2:02 AM CDT
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Miranda Eismendi, owner of Studio M Aesthetics in Charleswood, was still without power Friday.

Hydro scrambling to restore power to remaining 4,500 customers after storm; some outages will continue into Saturday

Chris Kitching 5 minute read Preview

Hydro scrambling to restore power to remaining 4,500 customers after storm; some outages will continue into Saturday

Chris Kitching 5 minute read Friday, Jul. 31, 2026

Power outages could stretch into a third day for some Manitobans — mainly in and around Winnipeg — while crews continued to repair widespread damage caused by powerful thunderstorms.

About 4,500 Manitoba Hydro customers were still without electricity at 2:30 p.m. Friday, after more than 30,000 lost power while powerful winds brought down trees and power lines Wednesday night and early Thursday.

The Crown corporation said it is aiming to have all outages with greater numbers of customers restored by Friday night, but some customers may remain without power into Saturday.

“The challenge is just the sheer scale of this thing — hundreds of different outages spread across a large part of the city,” Hydro spokesman Peter Chura said. “Just getting to all of them in a timely fashion is very difficult.”

Read
Friday, Jul. 31, 2026
Solomon Ghebru, his wife Mehret Awate, and their daughters Peniel, 8, and Lydia, 4, are hoping to move from a two-bedroom apartment into homeownership. (Supplied)

Long journey to home ownership for Eritrean couple

Zoe Pierce 4 minute read Preview

Long journey to home ownership for Eritrean couple

Zoe Pierce 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Solomon Ghebru and his family have been building a life together in Winnipeg for the past three years after years of living apart in various countries. Now, they are working toward a new goal: owning a home.

Their story is the focus of this year’s Habitat for Humanity Manitoba Cycle of Hope fundraising ride, a seven-day cycling event through southern Manitoba that begins Monday. The ride aims to raise $150,000 to support Ghebru, his wife, Mehret Awate, and their two daughters as they work toward affordable homeownership.

The couple’s journey to Canada started in Eritrea, where they grew up and attended the same church together. They left Eritrea separately, hoping to build a better life together out of the country. Ghebru travelled through Sudan and Libya before reaching Malta, while Awate travelled to Sudan and then Uganda.

After he found work in Malta, he tried to have his family join him, but government policies prevented them from reuniting. The couple married in Uganda in 2016, and their first daughter, Peniel, was born there the following year.

Read
Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT