Bundeskanzler Dr. Schwammpel?
(<= Ampelsmiley)
Your "Ampelsmiley" remembered me of the sometimes strange "Ampelmännchen" (= "Traffic-Light-Man[ikins]"?) in Germany, which are not necessarily designed all the same because they were different in West- and East-Germany and German laws do not force the cities to produce them in order to look all the same.
Usually, you only look if the light for pedestrians is red or green, but in some German cities, it could be worth to have a closer look on them because you will even find unusual "Ampelmännchen", "Ampelfrauchen" or even very special "Ampelmännchen" of historical persons.
The German city of Trier has the "very special German problem" of having - in principle - one of the most conservative and most Catholic histories of all German cities. It is situated in the "farest West" of Germany and exactly here was born Karl Marx, who has become a bit of luck and curse for this city at the same time.
Now, imagine a German city with the historical seat of a Catholic archbishop, the German seat of many Catholic Monastic Orders and here in the same city was born Karl Marx, who laid the basis for Marxism, Leninism, Communism etc. and who said similar friendly sentences about religion like Stalin or Mao Zedong did.
The result for many visitors (and me, too) of this city Trier is now that you sometimes see in Trier something of which you may think:
"Do these funny Germans really mean this all serious or is this a joke, which is difficult to understand?"
The clear answer is: Even we Germans ourselves do not really know nor do we really understand our history completely, which is so ambivalent that even our history seems to have a split personality - and this probably explains some "interesting" places in this city!
For example, there is a well-known scientific center for the studies of the life of Karl Marx and his theories at the start of the Brückenstraße (= Bridge Street) in Trier. The "Ampelmännchen" right in front of this scientific center are these ones:
You might think that the red one looks a bit like a crucified Karl Marx ... mhm ... you might be right ... according to the thoughts of many Catholic inhabitants here, but the many Chinese tourists in this city are convinced that all inhabitants of Trier are admirer of Karl Marx and they really like this traffic light. Next surprising fact: Some tourists are making the mistake in Trier, to ask why the Karl-Marx-Center is not located in the "Karl-Marx-Street".
Mhm, good question, but the "Brückenstraße" was always here and it ends at the start of the "Karl-Marx-Street", which is partly the "red-light-quarter" in Trier, where the local residents do not really care as much as the Catholic archbishop about the name of the street in which they are working ... hrm ... living and the Chinese tourists usually do not ask for the "red-light-district" of this city, only for the history of "red thoughts". Accidentally for sure, both streets are "Einbahnstraßen" = "One-Way-Streets" only.
Then, in most other German cities, the sculptures and monuments of Marxist or Communist "heros" were overturned but in Trier, the Chinese government (!) wanted to show its admiration for this "German genius" and paid almost all the costs for a new sculpture of Karl Marx which was never to be found in this city until the Chinese government and many Chinese tourists missed it.
Well, the regional German government thought: "OK, if it makes the tourists from China and the Chinese government so happy and we do not have to pay so much for it ... why not. There is a parking place for tourist buses allmost in the city center and even if we do not really like "old Charlie" there, the place is already ugly enough. Why not?"
And so, Trier is the most Catholic and most religious-conservative city in Germany with an almost brandnew statue of Karl Marx, paid by China in order to make their Chinese tourists happy and in order to improve its relations with Germany.
It was not the best timing in Covid-19-times but maybe, this is the revenge of history for all human mistakes on all sides ...
