An interesting thing I noticed when I traveled and explored Berlin was that bears were all over the city. Differently painted bears, but most of them were in the same position with paws up and identical sizes. I took pictures of as many as I could, and a lot were inside buildings of the third or fourth floors. The bears were bought by businesses or stores and displayed with the local artists’ work all over.
Going into a souvenir shop, they were also selling miniature sized bears in the same art as the real, life-sized ones. The employee told me that there’s a website documenting the locations of the bears: https://www.buddy-baer.com/classic-buddy-bears/events-in-cities/berlin.html
So why bears? The city of Berlin has the black bear as its mascot, which is pretty cool. These art installations are called “buddy bears” and they stand as symbols for tolerance and “Weltoffenheit” (world openness). They’re made of fiberglass and stand up with arms raised as a sign of positivity and friendliness. It all started from an artistic event where displays of these bears were shown to the public. From then on, private businesses own a lot of their own buddy bears all over the city.
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