Berlin:
As Germany readies to mark 35 years for the reason that Berlin Wall fell, one image of the previous communist East has change into an icon of reunification, seen by thousands and thousands each time they cross a road.
East Germany’s “Ampelmann” or pedestrian “site visitors gentle man” is now immediately recognisable because of his chunky define and wide-brimmed hat.
He virtually disappeared together with East Germany within the years after the Wall fell on November 9, 1989, when many different symbols of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) had been swept away.
Its polluting Trabant vehicles had been quickly headed for the scrap-heap, threadbare state-run outlets gave option to Western manufacturers, and gray prefabricated tower blocks received new licks of paint.
The Ampelmann virtually went the identical manner, mentioned Markus Heckhausen, a businessman in his 60s from the western German metropolis of Tuebingen.
He remembered seeing the site visitors lights that includes the Ampelmann typically mendacity on the aspect of the highway within the early days of reunited Germany.
Regardless of being a “Wessi” — the generally pejorative nickname for West Germans — Heckhausen took up the reason for the Ampelmann and noticed a business alternative.
‘Trendy, Physique-Constructive’
He began gathering the chunky lights to show them into indoor lamps, whereas concurrently launching an attraction for the Ampelmann to be saved on the streets.
The marketing campaign struck a chord with many East Germans who felt “they had been dropping their identification” as their nation was virtually subsumed into its Western neighbour, mentioned Heckhausen.
Not solely was the Ampelmann saved within the East, however he additionally grew to become a uncommon image from the GDR to be adopted in elements of the West, together with within the former western sectors of long-divided Berlin.
The design was created in 1961 by the state’s “transport psychologist” Karl Peglau and have become one thing of a star inside East Germany, even popping up in cartoons.
“I had the sensation he was all the time there throughout my childhood,” mentioned 53-year-old Torsten Foeste, who was born within the GDR city of Greifswald however now lives in Berlin.
Fons Hickmann, a graphic designer and professor at Berlin College of the Arts, mentioned the Ampelmann’s enduring recognition is right down to his determine’s lovable “imperfection”.
“The again leg is a bit of too lengthy, the entrance one a bit of too quick, the entire determine is kind of cumbersome,” he informed AFP.
“One may say that it is a very trendy, body-positive image,” he quipped.
Cash-Spinner
Peglau’s intention was to create a cute, eye-catching determine which might be readily seen, particularly by kids and the aged, at a time when highway accidents had been on the rise.
“I feel in essence it is such an necessary thought, saying that highway site visitors would not solely belong to vehicles, however to others too, together with pedestrians,” mentioned Hickmann.
Whereas nonetheless conserving pedestrians protected, the common-or-garden Ampelmann has change into an enormous money-spinner too, with Heckhausen following up on the lamps with mugs, T-shirts, smooth toys and even USB sticks.
Not that Foeste minds the very capitalist incarnation of his childhood reminiscence that Heckhausen has created: “I say congratulations to him, it is a tremendous thought!”
Heckhausen was even capable of persuade Peglau to work with him on the merchandise till the latter died in 2009.
At the moment the Ampelmann enterprise makes thousands and thousands of euros a yr and employs round 80 individuals, mentioned Heckhausen.
Notably in Berlin, Ampelmann shops have change into one thing of an compulsory cease for a lot of on the vacationer path.
In a single, customer Petra from the western metropolis of Essen hailed the “stylish” design, including: “I’ve already purchased some schnapps glasses and fridge magnets”.
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