Trend Ampelmännchen – Mascot Betzi as Ampelmännchen in Kaiserslautern – Panorama

Kaiserslautern (dpa/lrs) – Betzi will be guiding pedestrians across the street in Kaiserslautern as a traffic light man. The devilish mascot of 1. FC Kaiserslautern will flash at the intersection of Eisenbahnstrasse and Logenstrasse near the police headquarters. The opening is planned for October 14, the city announced. This follows the example of Mainz, where the Mainzelmännchen light up. The SWR was the first to report on this.

Decorating traffic lights with original figures has long been a trend across Germany and in Rhineland-Palatinate. In the sausage market town of Bad Dürkheim, for example, a winegrower with a basket on his back (Logel) regulates pedestrian traffic, in Trier it is the communist chief theoretician Karl Marx and in Worms the reformer Martin Luther (“Here I stand. I can do no other”). The legendary founder of Pirmasens, Landgrave Ludwig IX of Hesse-Darmstadt (1719-1790), is also active as a traffic light figure, as is the German Wine Queen in Neustadt.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:240925-930-243318/1