What is it about Ampelmännchen that is so great for Annie Price, creative director, Wunderman Thompson Melbourne? “I wrote about something that reflects my love of collecting and of ‘things’ that have stories. This incredibly creative piece of industrial design has gone on to mean so much more than it was first intended. It fascinated me, so hopefully readers will find it fascinating too.”  I did [:ed]  Here is Annie Price’s story:

It started as a great bargain, $2 from an op shop. I stuck a flower in it and thought I’d found a quirky new vase.

A week later, our German friend, Arne came over for dinner, spotted it and proclaimed “Ah, you have an Ampelmännchen!” (translates to ‘little traffic light man’).

He goes on to tell me it’s a German pedestrian crossing symbol, I start researching and soon learn the truly wonderful back story of this little piece of plastic industrial design, discovering what really made it great.

The Ampelmännchen is a proud symbol of Eastern Germany, created in 1961 by psychologist Karl Peglau and sketched by his talented secretary Anneliese Wegner (‘behind every great man’ as they say). The slightly plump, side-facing green man with his wide-paced legs is associated with a dynamic arrow, signalling permission to “go ahead”. He’s on the plump side and wears a hat, not just to make him endearing, but because a larger area of light means more visibility and safety for pedestrians. The red “stop” version was similarly chunky with outspread arms.

The East German Ampelmännchen had a distinct design and safety advantage over their much slimmer, more static looking West German colleagues. A win for the East!

It took a long eight years of behavioural studies and tests before Ampelmännchen was finally introduced in 1969. But he was an instant success, both on the streets and on TV, where he became a TV star, educating children on road safety. The red character was called Stoppi and the green, Galoppo

Karl Peglau couldn’t completely explain the success of his Ampelmännchen but I love his summary, “Presumably it is due to their special and almost indescribable aura of human sociability and warmth that so many people feel pleasantly touched and addressed by these symbolic figures, and that they find in them a chunk of honest identification with history, which gives the Ampelmännchen the right to represent the positive aspects of a failed social order.”

Following the German unification in 1990, there were attempts to standardise all traffic signs to the West German designs. And when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, it seemed like the Ampelmännchen would meet the same destiny as most other GDR symbols, erased forever. But thanks to a designer with a keen eye for icons, a passion for history and commercial sensibility, Peglau’s Ampelmännchen was saved.

Markus Heckhausen saw state workers tearing down his favourite symbol of the east and asked if he could take them home. He advertised the first Ampelmännchen lamp from his apartment rooftop and later teamed up with Peglau to found the Rescue Committee for Ampelmännchen. They lobbied politicians, publishing a book on the history of the design, to bring public awareness to their cause. And it worked!

In 2005, Berlin officials passed a resolution to start replacing all outdated West Berlin traffic lights with the Eastern Ampelmännchen. Now, of the approximate 2100 traffic lights in Berlin, around 64% sport the famous GDR design.

Heckhausen was one switched on guy (much like his lights). He monetised the hype and drew up an agreement with Peglau for brand and trademarking rights in exchange for paying him ongoing licensing fees. I was pleased to discover that Peglau remained involved in all creative decisions, right up until his death in 2009 aged 82 years. You could say they made a great pair, much like Stoppi and Galoppi.

What makes this truly great for me is that this little guy, born as a clever piece of very practical, industrial design, has gone on to enjoy the privileged status of being one of the very few features of communist East Germany to have survived the end of the Iron Curtain with his popularity unscathed. In fact, he’s done much more than just survive, he’s become a cult figure found on 600+ products, from t-shirts to sweets, to deck chairs, toys, snow globes and of course, vases.

I’m a huge fan of clever, multi-purpose design, of preservation, respecting history and discovering the backstories behind objects. These are the things drive me, both at work and home. And they are all there in this one little object that I have a newfound respect for. He’s pretty great, right?