This picture (and its companion) requires a bit of explanation. Germans are very fastidious about observing Walk/Don't Walk signs. Even if no cars are coming, if the sign says Don't Walk, they'll stay put. Instead of our familiar text "Walk" and "Don't Walk" signs, the Germans use red and green "Ampelmännchen" (little walking men) for the purpose. But being divided so long, the East and West Germans had somewhat different designs for their Ampelmännchen.

The West German Ampelmann looked basically like our generic man symbol, most often seen on Men's Restrooms. For "Stop" he would be standing still. and for "Go" he'd be walking. The East German Ampelmann was similar, but appears as a bit more round man and less of a stick figure, and he has a little hat on his head, giving him a bit more jaunty appearance.

Well, after German reunification in 1990, the government started tearing out all the East German style walk signals and replacing them with West German style ones. This led to some outcry in the East in general and in East Berlin in particular, and eventually led to a "Save our Ampelmännchen!" campaign! The campaign was a success, and so now you can readily tell when you are in an area that used to be East Berlin by looking at the Walk signal: if the man in the signal has a little hat, you're in the former East Berlin, otherwise you're in the West!

So, here is the East German style red "Don't Walk" Ampelmann.

Red Ampelmann