BERLIN -- Perhaps motivated by his Communist surroundings, East German traffic psychologist Karl Peglau wanted a pedestrian traffic light for the proletariat. Everyone from the color-blind, to the elderly, to children uses sidewalks, he reasoned, so why not a “walk/don’t walk” symbol that makes sense to anyone—and, ideally, reduces traffic fatalities too.

In 1961, he devised a “walk” man in a straight-legged stride and a “don’t walk” man with arms outstretched like a cheerleader. He gave them noses and hands so as to “appropriately provoke the desired pedestrian behavior through emotion.”

Thus was born the Ampelmännchen, or “little traffic light men,” the hatted, purposeful-looking indicators that helped direct traffic in East Germany and have since gained cult status.

Peglau later said he was worried about his pitch to East German officials because he thought they might scorn the hat atop the little man as a symbol of “petty bourgeois.” They didn’t, but they did ask Peglau to make him face to the left—again, perhaps a sign of the times.

The first Ampelmännchen found his home at the corner of Unter den Linden and Friedrichstrasse, two major streets in East Berlin, in 1969. They proved so popular that they were woven into children’s cartoons and comic strips, sort of like a Smokey the Bear for traffic safety. Meanwhile, West Germany went with a much more traditional-shaped traffic man, one without snazzy accessories or cartoonish proportions.

Stop and go men from East Germany (top) and West Germany (bottom), paired with men in the opposite color and a standard traffic light as part of a study to test reaction times. (PLOS)

A few decades later, Ampelmännchen nearly faced extinction. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, newly unified Germany sought to rid itself of the vestiges of the East—including its pedestrian signals. The country prepared to switch to the more generic-looking West German traffic man in 1997.