The Ampelmännchen – An ‘ostalgic’ traffic light

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent German reunification (1990), many residents of the former GDR were happy that they could finally enjoy the many freedoms of the west. After a period of standardization, in which the old East German culture was replaced in many places by Western variants, a form of nostalgia for the past life in the GDR arose in the former East Germany . A well-known example of this so-called ‘Ostalgie’ revolved around a jolly traffic light man, the Ampelmännchen.

In 1961, long before German unification, the German traffic psychologist Karl Peglau developed a new kind of traffic light for pedestrians. The psychologist believed that it was not enough to work only with the colors red, orange and green in traffic lights, because there were also people who could not distinguish these colors. Peglau therefore argued in favor of adding different shapes to the traffic lights in addition to colours.
At the psychologist’s initiative, these symbols were then replaced by images of a man with a hat: the Ampelmännchen. When pedestrians had to stop, this traffic light man made a stop movement with his arms ( der Steher ) and at green he started enthusiastically ( der Geher ). The images soon became familiar to young and old alike. The images of the walking man were also frequently used during traffic lessons at schools.

Action

After German unification, there were plans to standardize traffic lights throughout Germany. This meant that the Ampelmännchen had to make way for the West German variant. However, this went a bridge too far for residents of the former GDR . They didn’t want to lose their traffic light man.

Shortly after it became known in 1996 that the male was going to disappear, residents of eastern Berlin therefore set up a Komitee zur Rettung der Ampelmännchen . In the months that followed, a lot of campaigning was conducted in the city. All kinds of objects appeared in Berlin (such as t-shirts, umbrellas, mugs, etc.) bearing the image of the Ampelmännchen. When the international media also started covering the matter, the male appeared to be saved.

The Ampelmännchen thus grew into one of the symbols of the former GDR. Even today, the male can still be found in the East German streets. And the male is a popular object in all kinds of souvenir shops.

Video: Das Ost-Ampelmännchen is beliebt