Tuffi

Tuffi (c. 1947 - 1989) was a female circus elephant that became famous in Germany in 1950 when she jumped from the suspended monorail in Wuppertal into the river below.

On 21 July 1950 the circus director Franz Althoff had Tuffi, then 3 years old, take the "Schwebebahn" in Wuppertal, as a marketing gag. The elephant apparently did not enjoy the ride, trumpeted wildly and ran through the wagon, broke through a window and fell some 5 meters down into the Wupper river, suffering only minor injuries. A panic had broken out in the wagon and some passengers were injured. Althoff helped the elephant out of the water. Both the circus director and the official who had allowed the ride were fined.

Tuffi was sold to Cirque Alexis Gruß in 1968; she died there in 1989.

To this day, the location of the incident, between the stations "Alter Markt" and "Adlerbrücke" in Wuppertal, is marked with a painted elephant on a house wall.The Wuppertal tourist information keeps an assortment of Tuffi-related souvenirs.

In 1970 Marguerita Eckel and Ernst-Andreas Ziegler published a Children's picture book about the incident, named "Tuffi und die Schwebebahn".

References

* Stephan Oettermann: "Die Schaulust am Elefanten. Eine Elephantographia curiosa". Syndikat:Frankfurt am Main 1982. Chapter "Elefantenkatastrophen und „Wunder der Tierdressur“", S. 69-82; S. 73. ISBN 3-8108-0203-4. de icon

See also

* List of historical elephants

External links

* [http://www.solingen-internet.de/si-hgw/tuffi.htm Postcard drawings of the incident]
* [http://www.werner-steinbach.de/wuppertal/historie/tuffi/tuffi-sprung.html Images and newspaper report] de icon