Berlin-watchers, or even just occasional visitors, will be aware of the fashion for iconic products and images of the former east Germany. The city has Ossi shops that specialise in nostalgic souvenirs (a selection of which we profile elsewhere in this site).

But there’s one particular symbol of the former east in today’s Berlin which has proved a successful and distinctive part of the city infrastructure: the Ampelmann, aka the traffic light man.  He’s slightly rotund, slightly comical, eminently human, and now so loved that he has even inspired a string of shops.

The hat-wearing Ampelmann was first conceived back in 1961 by ‘traffic psychologist’ (wassat?) Karl Peglau. Unlike the rather dull and ubiquitous unisex silhouette used for pedestrians all over the rest of Europe, he was clearly identified as a male figure, and one with a purposeful stride when clad in green. In the 1980s he was adopted by the then East German Ministry of the Interior for all kinds of road safety campaigns, appearing in comic strips and on TV, but when the Wall fell in 1989, it looked as if his days were numbered. The unisex silhouette from the west started to invade.

The comeback begins

Initially, the poor little Ampelmann was taken down and dismantled, but gradually people started to object; his character had far more charm and personality than his anonymous usurper, and they wanted to keep him. It took a graphic designer from west Germany, however, to first come up with the idea of transferring the figure onto other products – in this case a set of table lamps.

Other products followed, and gradually, the figure became the mascot of Ostalgie, the nostalgia movement for anything east German. Eventually the Berlin authorities reversed the process of modernisation, and restored the original hatted figure to all traffic lights across the city in 2005. Other cities followed, and now there’s even an Ampelfrau, Ampelkinder, and variations of the Ampelmann carrying umbrella, camera etc.

These days you can take an Ampelmann home, too, thanks to a string of four Ampelmann shops in Berlin (particularly in Hackesche Höfe, with a nearby Ampelmann Restaurant in Monbijou Park). These sell everything from mugs to T-shirts to umbrellas to suitcases, all emblazoned with the little travelling man, or with newer members of his extended family.

Against all the odds, Ampelmann has become cool.

The Ampelmann Shop and the Ampelmann Restaurant.

They call it Ostalgie, nostalgia for the east and the former DDR. It has taken several forms over the years: sudden affection for the Trabant, as in Trabi Safaris (motoring tours in Trabants); hotels like Berlin’s Ostel where the decor is garish, you get treated in a surly fashion and have to pay in old Marks; the success of films like Goodbye Lenin and The Lives of Others, etc. And now there’s Ossi shopping, both online and on the high street in cities all over the country.

Some of the Ossi products offered in these stores are pure nostalgia, others are a bit of a laugh, and still more are actually a good deal. You can buy, for example, trashy coloured melamine tableware for kids; a Trabant ruler; Blauer Würger (Blue Strangler) a blue-coloured sweet drink with the motto, ‘if you drink Blue Strangler even the DDR looks beautiful’, and Erichs Rache (Erich’s Revenge), the German throatcleaner, an alcoholic herbal digestif. There’s army ‘field soup’ and packets of iron rations for marches and manoeuvres, in case you ever felt the need to go jungle. Former DDR beauty products come in gift packs with model Trabants, for the woman in your life who likes to combine banana-flavoured cleansing with playing with model cars, and you can even buy wads of the old DDR banknotes, too.

Blauer Würger (Strangler) a coloured  drink with the motto, ‘if you drink Blue Strangler even the DDR looks beautiful’

Of course some of these items are not true originals, but there are some memorable brands that have had something of a resurgence in recent years. Trabants, and even Wartburgs, have become collectors’ items, particularly for tourism and themed bars. The ‘carbonated soft drink with fruit and herb flavouring’ called Vita Cola (the Communist take on Coca Cola) was once bottled in 200 plants all over the DDR, vanished with the Wall, but has staged a comeback amongst socialist thinkers and drinkers.

Spreewald gherkins, from the watery region of the Spree to the south and east of Berlin, are being sold in very significant quantities once again, and not just to tourists. And Mocca Fix, coffee flavoured with caramel, is still around in the shops.

But the biggest success of all the former DDR products is the ‘communist champagne’, Rotkäppchen (Little Red Riding Hood) sparkling wine, which has come out fighting after reunification, and is now actually Germany’s market leader, with over 40 percent of the market, and nearing 200 million bottles sold per year.

Besides high street outlets, there are several online retailers, including Ossiladen.