Lukas Hartmann

Lukas Hartmann (born Hans-Rudolf Lehmann; 29 August 1944) is a Swiss author.

Life and work Born as Hans-Rudolf Lehmann in Bern, his mother was a farmer's daughter and his father was a 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 a 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.

Since 1996 Hartmann has been married to the Swiss politician Simonetta Sommaruga. At the end of October 2022, he suffered a stroke, so his wife announced her resignation as Federal Councillor at the end of 2022.

Awards 1995: Schweizer Jugendbuchpreis for So eine lange Nase. 2010: Grosser Literaturpreis von Stadt und Kanton Bern