AMPELMANN Shop in den Hackeschen Höfen

The first ever Ampelmann Shop is located in the fifth courtyard of the Hackesche Höfe, opened in 2001 by Markus Heckhausen, who initially assembled the lamps himself. Over 600 products revolve around the figure that Karl Peglau designed for East Berlin traffic lights in 1961. Eastalgia in Berlin thus has an address where it has become a brand.

Ampelmann Shop in the Hackesche Höfe: the brand’s first store

The Ampelmann Shop in the Hackesche Höfe is located in the fifth courtyard of the ensemble at Rosenthaler Straße 40-41, about a hundred meters from the Hackescher Markt S-Bahn station. The courtyards themselves were opened in 1906, eight inner courtyards are lined up one after another, and the colorfully glazed Art Nouveau facade of the first courtyard was designed by August Endell. If you make your way through the passages to the back, you will end up in a quieter part of the complex, where trees stand and there is significantly less activity than on the street.

This is exactly where the brand started. Product designer Markus Heckhausen assembled his first Ampelmann lights from original traffic light glass himself and opened the first store ever in 2001. AMPELMANN GmbH has existed since 1999 and now employs around 120 people and operates six stores in Berlin. The original store in the courtyards is the smallest and most interesting of them.

Over 600 products revolving around the East Berlin Ampelmännchen

The figure comes from traffic psychologist Karl Peglau, who submitted his proposals for new traffic signs on October 13, 1961. The bulbous nose, hat, and round shape had a sober purpose: they enlarged the illuminated area and made the signal more visible. After reunification, the East German traffic lights were to be dismantled until Heckhausen and Peglau signed an agreement on the use of Peglau’s copyrights in the summer of 1996, and the dismantling was stopped.

Today, the Ampelmann Shop in the Hackesche Höfe has over 600 items on its shelves. The range extends from T-shirts and umbrellas to honey, pasta, and chocolate, to reflectors for school bags and cuddly toys. The fruit gums cost 3.50 Euros, the Ampel light, as the brand’s original product, is priced at 149.95 Euros. Among all the souvenir shops in the city center, this is one of the few with a genuine Berlin story behind it. There are now branches Unter den Linden, at Gendarmenmarkt, at Berliner Dom, and at Hauptbahnhof, but the small shop in the courtyard remains the address where the brand truly originated.