Published work: Articles for TravelGluttons

Saturday, 24 November 2012

Ampelmännchen in Berlin/ The old East-Berlin traffic light now all around the city


The famous cute little figure is not only cute, creative and adorable, it is nowadays all over Berlin (and Germany)....The East Berlin Ampelmännchen (the little traffic light man) was crreated as a way to show better what should be done by red and green light and turned (from 1961 till 2005) into a cult! After the Berlin wall fall most of the East Berlin Ampelmännchen were dismantled due to unification reasons. Already in 1995 there were movements for saving East-Berlin traffic lights as part of East Berlin culture. The modern "little traffic light man" had their come-back in 2005: both to East and West Berlin.
What is even more interesting that even few other (West-)German cities installed some in their streets, for example Heidelberg and Saarbrücken. The reason for this the more appealing symbols and better effect on public. In 2004 the female version of Ampelmann, die Ampelfrau, was born. You may meet her on traffic lights in Dresden, Zwickau and Fürstenwalde...They make me smile, what about you? Any cute/ funny/ different traffic lights actors in your city/area/country we should know of?

12 comments:

  1. Hi Jana,

    We don't have "cute" traffic lights but I wish we did. Yours are so darn cute! They would make me smile too! :)

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  2. Ja, prachtig zijn de oorspronkelijk uit de DDR afkomstige ampel-mannetjes.Een punt-mannetje en een streep-mannetje. Fijn weekend Jana,
    Dietmut

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  3. De mannetjes ken ik, Jana, beentjes open om over te lopen, beentjes dicht om te wachten. De vrouwtjes..., nooit gezien ?!
    Lie(f)s.

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  4. He's so cute! The image made me smile.:)

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  5. Very amusing!
    Wish you a nice Sunday
    Kiss
    Erika

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  6. The blue and red figures of Japanese traffic light for pedestrians also have action, not so active and adorable but in more subdued way. It’s nice that East Berlin's figures have spread to all Berlin and other German cities.

    Yoko

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  7. Hallo Jana,
    The Ampelmännchen have meanwhile achieved cult status. Thanks for your amusing post.
    Happy new week from "Schwabenländle".
    J&C

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  8. those are cute traffic lights instead of simple colors :)

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  9. What a cool symbol in a world that has become so 'pedestrian' :>)

    Lovely and interesting blog.

    [oh, but the word verification is a pain]

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  10. Very funny Jana, good that you informed me about this.

    Greetings,
    Filip

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  11. Hi Jana! These little traffic "action figures" are cute and very easy to tell what you are supposed to do. Have never seen anything similar in the US.

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  12. Happened to be on the computer when you visited - came by to say Hi. You haven't posted for awhile - are you on a blog break, too? Wanted to wish you all the best this holiday season, Jana. Be safe and well.

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