The fashion started in pre-unification East Berlin, which had a quirky design to the cartoon figures used on pedestrian crossings. Post unification, and after some humming and hawing, the designs were adopted across the whole city, becoming a tourist attraction in their own right.
In the past thirty-odd years, many other cities across Germany and around the world have adapted the idea, often basing their designs on well known figures associated with their locality. Trier commissioned these to mark the bicentennial of Karl Marx’ birth there.
Another marker of the 200th anniversary is a 15 ton, 5 metre high statue gifted to the city by the Chinese state. I preferred this statue, in the window of a city centre art shop.