Thoughts on Germans and road-crossing

Why did the German cross the road?
If you answered anything other than 'because the green man was showing', you lose.

The Germans seem to share the British ingrained respect for all rules, but none of our reserve. I've been on the receiving end of loud tuts and disapproving head-shakes for crossing the road while the red man was showing - I looked both ways, there were no cars to be seen for miles, and I'm also 80% sure the traffic light was broken, but that wasn't enough to deter my fellow road-crossers from sticking it out.

They're probably still there now, slowly growing weary, tired and cold from standing on the same bit of pavement for over 24 hours, but warmed by the inner satisfaction in knowing that they are following the rules.

I'm all for road safety, but it takes a bit of getting used to after Rome, where every pedestrian crossing felt like the Hunger Games arena - may the odds be ever in your favour indeed - and the green man meant nothing more than 'haha we're still going to drive straight at you, loser'.

It really begs the question of why Khrushchev bothered with the Berlin Wall; in a country whose population can seemingly be kept in one place just by the presence of a luminous red man, it seems he may have missed a trick.

On another note, German traffic lights are in themselves pretty great, at least in former East Berlin. For one thing, the Ampelmännchen ('little traffic light man' - isn't German just the best) is wearing a bowler hat. When in stern red mode, he's depicted with arms outstretched, as though physically obstructing his fellow pedestrians from attempting an unsafe crossing, something I would not be at all surprised to hear many Germans actually do, while his green counterpart appears to be swinging his arms enthusiastically as he strides across the road. It's one of the few features of the Communist era to have survived the fall of the Wall and become an integral part of Berlin culture, and there's even a dedicated Ampelmännchen souvenir shop. Only in Germany.