No Schnapps for Traffic Men

In the past decade, Markus Heckhausen has helped restore one of East Germany's most recognizable characters to its former glory -- and turned him into quite a little money-maker.

The traffic man crossing signals, once threatened with extinction following German reunification, have become one of East Germany's most recognizable tourist attractions. Heckhausen, who began collecting them in the mid-1990s, has plastered the bowler hat-wearing image all over T-shirts, mugs and -- coming soon -- kids' wear and a traffic game featuring the little men. His three stores make over 2 million euros ($2.6 million) in sales each year.

So when a competitor, Signal Technology Rossberg in the eastern German city of Zwickau, began producing beer mugs and pens featuring the little men, it was time to sue. Even worse, says Heckhausen, the mugs and bottles of traffic man schnapps taint the family-friendly image of the products he hawks.

Heckhausen, who has the blessing of GDR traffic psychologist and traffic man inventor Karl Peglau, is fighting for the sole right to market the East German images. Joachim Rossberg, whose company actually produced the traffic signal lenses in the GDR, says that the "cradle" of the little men is in Zwickau, not Berlin.

The pair will see each other in court on April 26 in Leipzig.