Hans the unfortunate hippo

In 1945 the German city of Königsberg was conquered by the Russian Army. It had a zoo, but only four animals survived. One of them was a hippopotamus called Hans, found in a ditch. Hans had been injured and had not eaten for many days but was nurtured back to health.

The Russians expelled the German population and repopulated it with Russians, annexing it to Russia. The zoo was repopulated too, but Hans remained there and became a feature for many decades.