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der Ziehvater (-väter)*
   foster father

Der berühmteste Zoo-Mitarbeiter, der Ziehvater von Eisbär Knut, ist tot. Der 44-jährige Thomas Dörflein wurde gestern Nachmittag tot in der Wohnung einer Bekannten in der Durlacher Straße in Wilmersdorf entdeckt.
The most famous zoo worker [in Germany], the foster father of the polar bear Knut, is dead. 44-year-old Thomas Dörflein was found dead in the apartment of a female acquaintance on Durlacher Straße [Street] in Wilmersdorf [a district of Berlin].

Related Words:
erziehen to raise, bring up
ziehen to breed, grow (sth); move; pull, drag, draw; simmer
das Ziehkind foster child*
die Ziehmutter foster mother*

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*The word Ziehkind and the other Zieh-words are old-fashioned or figurative terms. The modern term for foster child is Pflegekind. A foster home is die Pflegestelle. (die Pflegeeltern = foster parents)

Note: Dörflein, in the news item above, raised the baby bear after his polar bear mother rejected him and his brother. He named the survivor Knut and unwillingly became famous along with his “foster” star attraction at Berlin’s Zoologischer Garten (zoo). More: Berliner Zeitung

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