Unusual Traffic Lights in Berlin - what are they?

Have you been walking around Berlin and wondered why the traffic light man is so cute here? He’s become an icon of Berlin and is so popular that there are several souvenir shops dedicated just to him. If you’re wondering where the Ampelmann comes from, then read on.

In 1924 not only Berlin but the whole European continent got its first ever traffic light, right in the middle of Potsdamer Platz. Then 37 years later in 1961 East Germany got it’s most famous symbol, the Ampelmann.

The Ampelmann was created by traffic psychologist Karl Peglau, the Ampelmann was designed to look friendlier to pedestrians than his West German counterpart. The traffic light was first tested at the intersection of the Unter den Linden and Fridrichstraße, where the Ampelmann shop is today, and after 8 years was finally approved.

The cute traffic light man wearing his hat was so popular in East Germany that he even had his own TV show where he taught East Germans how to avoid getting hit by Trabis (the East German car) - another icon of East Germany.

After the fall of the Berlin wall and the Reunification of Germany, the government wanted to erase traces of Berlin’s division, and proposed removing the Ampelmann in favour of the West German (and much more boring - in my opinion) traffic light man.

This is where Markus Heckhausen comes in to save the Ampelmann. Seeing workers removing the Ampelmann lights at Rosenthaler Platz he asks to keep the disks. He takes them home and makes lamps out of them. He then teams up with the Ampelmann creator, Karl Peglau to found the ‘Rescue Committee for Ampelmann’, and in 2005 officials decided to begin reinstating the quirky East German traffic lights.

If you’d like to learn more about the quirks of the former East and West Berlin, join me on a Berlin Introduction tour. Or get in touch to arrange a custom Cold War Tour.