Greeny News

GDR became the light of the election after reunification - and a cult figure in Germany and beyond

is one of the few lasting symbols of East Germany:. A gay man with a little hat, showing pedestrians in the Socialist Republic if it was safe to cross the street

Fifty years after a traffic psychologist GDR came with the design of pedestrian crossing signals that are easy to distinguish visually impaired, Ampelmännchen became a cult figure in the world.

Thursday was the 50th anniversary of East German design, which, as Chancellor of race Brandenburg, Angela Merkel, is a rare example of a product of the triumph of the GDR into a united Germany and longer there.

these days, you can see Ampelmännchen by Germany. He almost did not happen. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, was a desire, driven by the mantra that "west is best" to dismantle as soon as possible the remains of the GDR, the Stasi secret police hated urban furniture.

Germans were united not only use the same currency, but the lights themselves, with the introduction of a standard "Euro", loosely based on the most serious (and hat) design the West.

the mid-'90s, when the euphoria of reunification was completed, a group of East Germans decided they were not prepared to see another part of the history thrown in the trash.

The company is run by graphic designer Markus Heckhausen, who bought the patent for the original designer, Karl Peglau.