Lukas Hartmann


Lukas Hartmann is a Swiss novelist and children's writer, who is well known in German-speaking countries. Married to the 2015 Swiss president Simonetta Sommaruga, he was Switzerland's "first husband" in 2015 and 2020.

Life and work

Born as Hans-Rudolf Lehmann in Bern, his mother was a farmer's daughter and his father was shoemaker, later auxiliary postman and department manager at the Swiss Post. His mother had a creative streak, which passed to both sons. Hartmann's younger brother Jürg became a journalist, and now heads the Ringier Group school of journalism. Lukas Hartmann wrote his first stories at the age of 13. He completed a teacher training course in Bern with majors in German, history and music, and worked first as a teacher. He then decided to pursue further studies in psychology, but he did not graduate, and later worked as social worker, journalist and writer. His novels Anna - annA and Pestalozzis Berg have been filmed.
Hartmann's grandmother was one of the so-called Verdingkinder, hence Hartmann is one of the most prominent supporters of the so-called Wiedergutmachungsinitiative. In April 2018, Ein Bild von Lydia was published, a historical novel about Lydia Welti-Escher.

Awards (excerpt)

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