Over five weeks after a 33ft humpback whale became stranded in shallow Baltic waters off the German coast, a barge has collected the mammal and is heading to the North Sea.

The elaborate operation to save the creature – affectionately named ‘Timmy’ by German media – has been mired in controversy, with multiple experts dubbing the mission ‘animal cruelty’.

Animal activists sounded the alarm that the 12-tonne whale’s poor health meant any attempt to save it would not only be futile, but cause further distress, and that it should be allowed to die peacefully.

But a duo of multi-millionaires wouldn’t take no for an answer, and personally financed an 11th-hour rescue mission for which they won state approval.

The pair of whale-enthusiasts are MediaMarkt co-founder Walter Gunz, and horse racing entrepreneur Karin Walter-Mommert, who used their fortunes in a last-ditch effort to rescue the wayward mammal.

Their mission – which local media said will likely cost millions – has sparked a national frenzy, with supporters baking whale-shaped cakes, writing songs about the animal and getting tattoos of the whale.

The ship Fortuna B, which is towing the barge, was located between the Danish islands of Langeland and Lolland at around 2pm on Wednesday, according to VesselFinder, with officials saying it could reach the North Sea in two days. 

While early reports indicate the animal is ‘doing well’, only time will tell whether Timmy gains the strength to survive back in the wild given severe health difficulties.

Timmy the humpback whale is being transported towards the North Sea in a flooded cargo ship after being recovered from a shallow bay off Wismar

Karin Walter-Mommert, one of the multimillionaires who funded the rescue effort, is a horse racing entrepreneur

MediaMarkt co-founder Walter Gunz is the other sponsor of the mission

Gunz, born in 1946, made his millions with the MediaMarkt chain, which he founded with three other entrepreneurs in Munich in 1979. 

MediaMarkt is a German multinational chain of stores selling consumer electronics with over 1,000 retail locations in ten countries in Europe. 

Before entering business, he studied philosophy and worked as a department director at Karstadt.

He is responsible for creating MediaMarkt’s advertising slogan ‘Ich bin doch nicht blöd’, meaning ‘I’m not stupid’.

In 2013, he titled his book ‘Ich war doch nicht blöd’, meaning ‘After all, I wasn’t stupid’.

In 2000, he left the company and sold his shares, becoming one of the 500 richest Germans in 2010 with a fortune of over 500 million euros.

Later in life, Gunz worked as a consultant and became the general manager of Axel Springer E-Commerce GmbH from 2005 to 2008. 

He is based in Bavaria, on Lake Tegernsee, and in Morocco. 

According to an earlier description in the ‘Rheinische Post’ newspaper, Gunz frequently bought caged animals in Morocco and then released them. 

In a previous interview, Gunz explained that the entire rescue operation ‘will not cost one hundred million’.

‘People always think too much about money. You can’t get nervous about it. Money is energy and you have to handle it carefully,’ he said.

When the barge began its journey to ferry the whale out of German waters, Gunz said he had never prayed so much in his life.

When it eventually collected the whale, Walter-Mommert – the other millionaire sponsor of the mission – was ecstatic, saying: ‘I can’t even say how happy I am.’

She is a successful racehorse owner, married to Austrian businessman Ulrich Mommert. 

She won the European Amateur Jockey Championship in 1999 and was the German amateur champion in 1998 and 1999. 

Before entering equestrian sports, she worked as an air stewardess for the then-American airline Pan American World Airways.

She earned the equivalent of approximately £1.2million in racing in Sweden in 2025, securing more than 150 wins and numerous second and third place finishes.

That year, she ranked second in Swedish ownership statistics (by wins).

She earned millions from the success of her 300 racehorses, who work with the top trainers.

In Sweden alone, her fortune from the racehorse business is estimated at around 7.1 million Swedish kronor (£565,000).

Her husband, also passionate about horse racing, made a fortune from the sale of the Austrian lighting company ZKW Group to the South Korean company LG in 2018.

In 1982, Mommert had taken control of the company when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. 

According to Forbes, the Mommert family has a fortune of US$1.7 billion (£1.3billion).

According to Bild, she is optimistic in saving the mammal: ‘We are hopeful and convinced that we are acting in the interest of the people of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Germany with the rescue attempt that has now been authorised.’

The dramatic operation has split opinion, with Greenpeace questioning whether the animal should have been saved at all

The whale, stranded in shallow Baltic waters far from its natural Atlantic habitat, was coaxed into the vessel on Tuesday in a last-ditch attempt to return it to the sea after weeks of struggle along Germany’s coast.

Once the transport ship Fortuna B towing the whale left German waters, it went through the Baltic Sea into Danish waters, sailing along the Danish coast of Jutland with the goal of heading through the Skagerrak strait towards the North Sea.

‘If everything goes well, he’ll be in the North Sea in two days. The very worst is already behind him now,’ said Till Backhaus, environment minister for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Speaking on the island of Poel, where the animal was most recently stranded, Backhaus said it was ‘doing well’ and had made sounds during the night, thanking rescuers for their ‘wonderful’ effort in ‘an exceptional situation that is hardly comparable anywhere in the world in this form’. 

But attempts to save the mammal have been criticised by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) as ‘inadvisable’, with experts saying the creature ‘appeared to be severely compromised’ and was ‘unlikely to survive’ attempts to move it into deeper water.

The whale has been described as lethargic and suffering with blister-like blemishes, while parts of a fishing net, some of which was removed early on in its stranding, are believed to be still caught in its mouth. 

Continuing to try to save the creature amounts to ‘pure animal cruelty’, according to the director of the Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund, Burkard Baschek.

‘A rescue attempt … is no longer worthwhile … this has been confirmed to us repeatedly by international colleagues,’ he warned prior to the mission.

Experts from the museum warned again on Wednesday against letting the whale loose in the open sea, saying it was in danger of drowning, and called on the team behind the rescue operation to be transparent, including providing data on the mammal’s whereabouts and publish its location if it was freed.

‘I believe the whale will die very soon now. And I would also like to raise the question: What is actually so bad about that?’ said Thilo Maack, a marine biologist at Greenpeace, earlier this month. 

‘Yes, animals live, animals die. This animal is really, really, very, very, very sick. And it has decided to seek rest.’ 

The humpback had been struggling for more than a month along the German coast, repeatedly getting stuck on sandbanks before freeing itself again.

At the start of April, officials abandoned rescue efforts, saying the whale could not be saved, and activists called for him to be left to die in peace. 

But public outcry led authorities to approve a privately financed plan proposed by the two entrepreneurs, who said they hoped to save the mammal ‘whatever it costs’.

The barge idea followed an earlier failed attempt using inflatable cushions and pontoons and was widely seen as a long shot, with experts warning it could cause further distress.

Rescuers pulled the whale into a flooded barge on Tuesday using straps and a channel dredged to create a passage to the vessel, with the operation broadcast live. 

After some distance, the whale, with rescuers swimming alongside it, sped up and then swam into the barge, sparking cheers from the rescue team and those watching from the shore. 

‘You could see that the whale fought and wanted to live. Knowing he’s now in the barge is simply wonderful and shows that the fight for Timmy was worth it,’ Walter-Mommert said.

The barge is expected to travel around the northern tip of Denmark towards the North Sea, where the whale will be released if it is strong enough.

At the start of April, officials abandoned rescue efforts, saying it could not be saved, but public outcry led authorities to approve a privately financed plan proposed by two entrepreneurs

A piece of green netting has been used to close the entrance so it does not swim out prematurely

A piece of green netting has been used to close the entrance so it does not swim out prematurely.

Backhaus, who approved the mission after vets said the whale was fit to be transported, said: ‘We have worked here day and night, and in the end we have saved this animal.’

‘Something like this has never happened before in Germany, where a life-saving operation of this kind has been carried out,’ he added at a press conference.

‘And this was an experiment, and the experiment was a success, and that’s wonderful.’

The minister said the whale had been resting peacefully and had vocalised on Tuesday night, suggesting it was doing well.

The debate over whether to let it die or try to return it to the Atlantic has raged for weeks, with protests on beaches in Wismar and competing views from scientists and activists.

Some scientists believe the whale sought shallow waters because it was weak and needed rest, while veterinarians involved in the private initiative maintain it was fit for transport.

The IWC was clear in its denouncement of active interventions to save stranded whales, ‘including refloat or translocation attempts such as towing or moving by barge’.

Such operations are ‘inadvisable on grounds of animal welfare and human safety’, it said.

‘In our assessment, these interventions, although well meant, impose very considerable additional stress upon a creature that is already gravely ill, to little ultimate benefit.’

Backhaus defended the rescue, saying it was ‘definitely worth it’.

‘I’ve always said, those who do nothing make no mistakes,’ he added.

‘If only the scientists [who] said it was all pointless… had seen the young [whale] now, how he swam into the barge all by himself’, he said.

He also insisted authorities had relied on scientific advice, saying: ‘No one could tell us with certainty that the whale would die, and when. On the basis of these vague statements, we decided to tolerate the rescue attempt.’

The saga has sparked a media frenzy, with non-stop coverage and heated debate, as Germany now waits to see whether Timmy can survive back in deep water.