After a nice break in the city Berlin Germany this specific memory. Ampelmannchen (German: little traffic light man, pl. Ampelmannchen) is the symbol shown on pedestrian signals in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR - East Germany), now a part of Germany. Prior to German reunification in 1990, the two German states had different forms for the Ampelmannchen, with a generic human figure in West Germany, and a generally male figure wearing a hat in the east. The Ampelmannchen is a beloved symbol in Eastern Germany, "enjoy[ing] the privileged status of being one of the few features of communist East Germany to have survived the end of the Iron Curtain with his popularity unscathed." After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Ampelmannchen acquired cult status and became a popular souvenir item in the tourism business. References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampelm%C3%A4nnchen