All over Berlin, on street corners, at cafes and concert halls, in shopping centers, you can’t escape the bears. I’m sharing here a few of the dozens I saw in a recent week in Berlin—but I did wonder what it was all about.
Turns out these are the Buddy Bears, placed around Berlin since 2002 inspired by New York’s Cow Parade, which was seen by Klaus and Eva Herlitz, the couple who are behind the project, with the original fiberglass sculpture created by Roman Strobl. The bear was an obvious choice: it’s on the city’s coat-of-arrms.
Hand-painted by dozens of artists, they’ve become as much a city symbol as Herr Ampelmann, the iconic figure on the walk-don’t walk lights. At one point, 140 of them were set up in a circle facing the Brandenburg Gate.
Over the years, bears have been sold, usually with proceeds going to charities such as UNICEF, and many of them now serve as icons or advertisements for local businesses.
