Now, twenty-two years after the wall came down, there’s a growing nostalgia for the old East Berlin.  Trinket vendors on Museumsinsel sell toy Trabants and Soviet flags.  The TimeOut city guide features a walking tour called “Socialism Safari."  And "Ossie,” or Ampelmann, the figure that indicates “walk” and “wait” on East Berlin crosswalk signals, is supplanting the bear as the unofficial mascot of the city.  Berliners were up in arms when, years ago, officials began upgrading signals in East Berlin with the more conventional West German icons.  Their protests were taken quite seriously, and now it’s policy to feature Ossie at crosswalks throughout the old East Berlin.  The closest thing New Yorkers have to this kind of civic icon are its sports team mascots.  But we don’t care about Mr. Met the way Berliners care about Ossie.  

The little green man is strangely out of fashion and proportion.  He’s like a South Park character, with a too-big head and squished limbs.  He wears an old-fashioned hat and walks so quickly that he might tip over forwards.  His image is everywhere, on t-shirts, Christmas ornaments, ice cube trays, and just about anything else that’s available for sale.  There’s an Ossie shop at KaDeWe.  And, in some misguided spirit of feminism, they’ve devised a female companion for him, Ampelwoman.  These are bright, lively icons.  But it’s a bit sad that everything meaningful about the old, divided city becomes so simply translated into something that’s for sale.