DJ members with family and bear

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This is a picture I had been looking for for awhile.
I always saw pictures of people with this bear.
Did this bear have a name and what did it symbolize?
Bobby

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This is a picture I had been looking for for awhile.
I always saw pictures of people with this bear.
Did this bear have a name and what did it symbolize?
Bobby

Hi Bobby,

you always saw pictures of people with this bear? Where, with who and at what time of the day?

No, honestly: I see him the first time and I can only imagine he was some "Trademark" or attraction of some tourist place. I can't associate any German name of summit/mountains/skiing area/etc with the German word for polar bear.

Rgds

Daniel

P.S.> Maybe it's actually a family member - they seem to be too familiar with him.
 
This is 'König'. I'm surprised no one knows about him actually. He was the King George III of the polar bear world and between 1932 and 1943 he was famous in Germany for pushing his way into tourist photos in various skiing resorts in the south of Germany.

Early photographs, much sought after by collectors, show König's initial lack of confidence and he is most often seen in the distance. If he did get close it would usually just be an arm or perhaps a foot poked in at the extreme left or right of the photo. However, the later shots like Doug's in post 1 above show König in relaxed and confident pose and chatting happily to tourists who by now of course were asking him to join them on the photograph.

At a recent auction an extremely rare and quite possibly unique photograph was sold which shows a clearly uncomfortable König posing with tourists in Berchtesgaden in July 1943. It is rumoured that it was this venture into the summer tourist market which led directly to his death later that year.
 
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