Wednesday 2 December 2009

In mourning for the creator of the Ampelmann

Our household is sad to hear that Karl Peglau designer of the wonderful East German Ampelmann has died.
You can read more about the context of the Ampelmann on Holy Disorder here.
If you have a photo of a green or red sign for crossing or not crossing the road we would love to see it, send me the link. We have a great poster of red and green persons from around the worldin our downstairs toilet . On special days when crossing the road Dr B will cross the road while trying to make the shape indicated by whichever green man appears.
Bizarrely in centralised France there is no unified "Euroman" - or europerson - but a plethora of quite strange red and green personnages at pedestrian crossings, including some very 1950s looking gentlemen wearing hats.

1 Comment:

Dr B. said...

Here's one of the ditties from the early 1960s using the Green Man to help children cross the road:

Was, ihr habt noch nie gehört, wie man Straßen überquert?
Wißt ihr, wer euch helfen kann? Ich, der grüne Ampelmann!
Ist mein grünes Licht zu sehn, könnt ihr sicher rübergehn.
Seht ihr meinen Freund in Rot, heißt das immer: Gehverbot!