Talk:Ampelmännchen

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Praise[edit]

After reading this article, may I just say...I fuckin' love Wikipedia. You guys are great. jengod 22:05, July 28, 2005 (UTC)

Well, it was a fun process for me. I've only been on Wikipedia for a few weeks and I've been having a good time. And having something mentioned on the front page certainly feels nice. During its creation, we even noticed that the website Expatica had ripped off one of the original images (previously used in the traffic lights article) without attribution. There are a bunch of other neat things related to Ostalgie on the German Wikipedia and this was one of the first I translated. Tfine80 22:22, 28 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]
They now seem to have attributed the images... 68.39.174.238 06:10, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Man or men on the traffic signal?[edit]

The word can be either singular or plural. On the German Wikipedia they define it in the singular in the definition. Tfine80 23:00, 28 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

"Männchen" is ambiguous, but in this case probably just means "little guy" (although it may still be plural). "Weibchen" is a pun on the usage of the word "Männchen" do denote an animal's sex in casual German ("Männchen"/"Weibchen" could be translated as (n.) "male"/"female" in this case).
I think that it's the singular form in this case because the whole Ostalgie thing is about the character of the East German version, which would be anthropomorphised as one distinct "person" (with his less cute West German "brother"). From the word alone, the exact number can't be recognised, though. — Ashmodai (talk · contribs) 17:40, 24 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ampelmädchen or Ampelfrau[edit]

Which is the correct term for the "female" Ampelmännchen? On this article they're called Ampelmädchen, but if you look at the article on Zwickau (down in the History section), they're called Ampelfrau. Being a non-German speaker, I have no idea which is correct. So, anyone out there know? --Brownings (talk) 17:50, 10 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There is no established standard here - it is a very young invention and still very local to be found for real. Common language would use the established "Ampelmännchen" and transpose it along common pairings: männchen/weibchen (male/female individual), mann/frau (man/woman), junge/mädchen (boy/girl). The treat here is that the oldfashioned "Weib" can be a derogatory expression - modern language would prefer "Frau" in all cases even that "Weibchen" (little Weib) is a common term in biology without the connotation. So in technical documents it would be named "Ampelfrau" while colloquial language would pick "Ampelweibchen". Since "Frau" does not transpose the "little" connotation some came up with "Mädchen" but that is neither used technically nor colloquially, perphaps it's an invention in the political arena. What's going to be standard language is unsure - since Ampelmännchen was originally a colloquial expression I might expect that it is Ampelweibchen but YMMV. As for the English wikipedia I'd choose Ampelfrau along with de:Ampelfrau Guidod (talk) 12:46, 23 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Prevalence in Western Berlin[edit]

The article mentions that the Ampelmann figure is used in (former) West Berlin, which is true, but I should point out that not all intersections in Berlin use it. The old (and imho significantly less intriguing) style predominates in the western districts, although Ampelmann does show up from time to time. My girlfriend and I made a kind of game of "Spot the Ampelmann" when walking through the western districts, and it was always a joy to see him. It really is a great design, and it's hard not to smile a little whenever you look at him.

Cepx (talk) 05:22, 4 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Reappearance[edit]

They seem to have reappeared in Fuerstenwalde on International Women's Day, but in feminine form rather than male. Other than that, they definitely resemble Ampelmannchen. I saw them on CTV National News that night. GBC (talk) 05:41, 13 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Outstretched arms = "Stop"[edit]

This gesture has been used for many decades by traffic directors throughout Europe to command "Stop".

This means STOP

knoodelhed (talk) 05:41, 1 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Just note, this image "Policista-Stůj.jpg" it obsolete, replace it: C30-2001 Sb Stuj.png. --L.Safranek (talk) 12:13, 3 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Western Ampelmännchen, "universal" gestures[edit]

I can see including the Western/Pan-German symbols for comparison purpose, but I don't see how the figure really qualifies as an "Ampelmännchen"; it looks just like any standard crossing-symbol. We have ones almost identical to it here in the US; it doesn't even have the arms-out stop signal. It has no character, so unless you want to define "Ampelmännchen" as the German word for any anthropomorphic figure used as a symbol on a crossing signal, I wouldn't call it an Ampelmännchen at all. I would restrict the term to just the East German version, or clearly related symbols; he has much more character, is more unique and deserving of the special term, with his little hat and everything. Just my opinion; I don't know why they want to replace them with those boring modern designs anyway (as an aside, I notice that while there have been attempts at using female or homosexual Ampelmännchen symbols in places, it doesn't mention any protest by feminist or LGBT groups about all the signs being "male/hetero dominated", and therefore being discriminatory against them: in the US, we have more than enough of those. For example, those who complain because the signs that show a man and a woman crossing together show the woman wearing a skirt; apparently that is offensive to them, because it somehow demeans the female. I'm not sure how they would rather portray a female figure on a simple black, featureless character, but there you have it. LGBT groups complain because it shows a heterosexual couple, therefore discriminating against them, etc, etc. I'm surprised you don't get similar groups in Germany).

Next subject, just a minor observation: the symbol for "stop" is supposed to be a universal sign that can be recognized by anyone. While this may apply to people who live in Europe, the signal is less well known in the US; not sure about other areas. In the US, holding up a hand palm out is "Stop", although this doesn't work well on a sign. However, we could easily infer a "stop" Ampelmännchen from context. What I was really originally thinking, is that a person from a totally foreign nation, with a different cultural mindset may see a picture of a person with arms outstretched as depicting a person spreading arms in welcome, as if for an embrace; it could conceivably be interpreted as "come" instead of "stop". I doubt this is really an issue, but it was an interesting thought. AnnaGoFast (talk) 22:34, 4 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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Make a reference to the Swedish "Herr Gårman"[edit]

In Sweden there is a traffic sign at pedestrian crossings depicting a man walking on the lines of the crossing, and this man is often jokingly referred to as "Herr Gårman", which means literally "Mr. Gårman" but sounds just like someone saying "här går man"; "here you walk". Since it is also a little bit of a cultural thing I believe this article should make a reference to it. Here is the article about him on Swedish wikipedia. Simonard (talk) 17:58, 20 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Proposal: Move the section on Art collective Ztohoven to Pedestrian crossing article[edit]

Since the replacement/alteration of pedestrian traffic lights by Ztohoven did not take place in Germany but in Prague, I suggest that it would be more appropriate to move the section on Art collective Ztohoven to a different article, such as Pedestrian crossing. 31.130.168.30 (talk) 11:36, 9 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

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