Before her sale to the Mediterranean, the ice breaker HANSE was owned by the Federal German Government. The vessel was stationed at Helsinki, on charter to the Finnish authorities, who had more frequent use for a ship of her kind than the Germans. In case of severe ice conditions off the German coast, however, HANSE could be immediately summoned to sail down to German waters, as has been the case during the ice winter of 1978/79 when she kept free the fairways to/from the Kiel Canal at Kiel.
The vessel is seen here in the Kiel Canal shortly after her sale in the late 1990s under her new name ASKLIPIOS, en route to the warmer climes of the Med.
For further details of her fate please see reply by msvnordica below.

Photo by Oliver Sesemann