After surviving the collapse of communism and attempts by bureaucrats to wipe him out, East Germany's green pedestrian traffic light man has emerged unscathed from a legal tug of war.
The hat-bearing figure used on pedestrian crossings across the former East Germany is one of the last visible reminders of the nation's divided past, and a source of pride for many of the country's well-disciplined pedestrians.
A court in Leipzig ruled on merchandising rights in favour of Ampelmann GmbH, a firm which produces and sells a range of the traffic-light man goods and which brought the case.
The silhouette -- with the man striding ahead on green and outstretched arms on red -- has become a popular symbol on a range of t-shirts, toys, mugs and other tourist souvenirs.
However, rights to use the figure on a range of liqueurs is retained by an east German businessman.
Introduced in East Germany in 1961, the little traffic-light man was once almost ditched in favour of standardised, sexless red and green figures used on pedestrian crossings across Europe.
3 comments:
is he doing a heil hitlet thing with his arm???
He is ! LOL
One thing I thought was funny with the world cup was that the German police banned Hitler salutes and swastikas ,but said a goosestep was ok if done in a humourous way :)
im sure that made john cleese happy.
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