The Traffic-Light Man
Never crosses on red · Keeper of the crossings
In 1924 Berlin put up a tower of traffic lights at Potsdamer Platz, a busy square. A copy of it stands there today.
The legend
In 1924 a five-sided tower with traffic lights went up at Potsdamer Platz, a busy Berlin square. A policeman sat inside and switched the lights by hand. The tower came down long ago, but a copy of it stands on the square today.
“I'd wait for green with him, just this once.”
Where it comes from
The keeper is inspired by Berlin's first traffic light tower and by the little man on the city's pedestrian lights.
In the 1920s Potsdamer Platz was called the busiest traffic centre in Europe. About 40 tram lines and some 60,000 cars a day passed through. The architect Jean Kramer designed an 8.5-metre tower modelled on traffic towers in New York, and Siemens & Halske supplied the lights. The first in Germany, it went into service on 15 December 1924. The lights were made automatic in 1926, and the tower was taken down in October 1937 to make room for a new S-Bahn line.
The Ampelmännchen was designed in 1961 by the East German traffic psychologist Karl Peglau. He wanted shapes that people who could not tell red from green would still understand: arms out for stop, a long stride for go. The hat came from a summer photo of Erich Honecker in a straw hat.
Where to see it
The copy of the tower on Potsdamer Platz was put up by Siemens on 26 September 1997 to mark the company's 150th birthday, and moved to its present spot in 2000. After reunification the little man's future looked uncertain, until campaigns from 1995 brought him back to the crossings. He now lights crossings across former East Berlin and some western districts.
In the game
The Traffic-Light Man checks his pocket watch. His lamp is red, so the plane will have to wait. His bowler hat slips, and he grabs for his pocket watch. The Traffic-Light Man snaps his watch shut, tips his bowler hat and lets the plane go by.
