These hilarious photographs show Germans posing alongside actors dressing as polar bears from the early and mid-20th Century. Even though the photos appear silly and absurd, they convey a strange feeling. The bear’s poses vary only slightly, and he has a shaggy grin.
The pictures were part of a TeddyBär collection compiled between the end of World War I and the early 1960s by Jean-Marie Donat. After finding a picture of a polar bear impersonator walking down a Berlin street, he spent 20 years hunting down other bear impersonators spanning four decades and originating all over Germany. The many images he found are now collected together in TEDDYBÄR.
The polar bear craze began in the early 1920s when two polar bears arrived at the Berlin Zoo, sparking the bizarre tradition. Families from all over the country came to see the bears and to take pictures with the bear suit guys outside the gates welcoming tourists to the zoo. This led to a nationwide phenomenon that lasted until the late 1960s. Humans first wore bear suits during shamanic rituals. The bear is a popular choice of mascot in modern times, and both stylized and realistic bear suits are commonly used in film and on stage.
