German Ambassador Maike Friedrichsen and Puerto Plata Vice Mayor Kenya de León de Desangles led the official welcome, joined by authorities from the area. Bishop Julio César Corniel Amaro was present to bless the sculpture.
During the gathering, Ambassador Friedrichsen summarized the spirit of the initiative in one sentence:
“Although thousands of kilometers may separate us, the ties between our countries are growing stronger. From today on, ‘El Puente’ is a tangible expression of that union.”
A Symbol of Shared History
The work is entirely Dominican in conception, designed by visual artist Maribel Veras. Her proposal—titled (BRÜCKE / PUENTE)—won the design competition organized by the German Embassy earlier this year. The concept uses the image of a tree, with its roots, trunk and branches, to reflect the evolution of a shared history, the strength of the current relationship and everything that still remains to be built together.
Alliances with History
The bear’s arrival on the north coast was the result of teamwork between the Puerto Plata City Government and Marítima Dominicana (MARDOM). The choice of MARDOM as logistics partner was not a coincidence: the company was founded in 1971 by German Karsten Hermann Windeler and Dominican Gustavo A. Tavares Espaillat, pioneers in connecting local commerce with the rest of the world.
MARDOM’s own company history describes the firm as a ship agent and stevedoring company established in 1971 to serve Dominican ports, including Puerto Plata, and says it has since expanded into integrated logistics, refrigerated services and container-terminal operations. Its role in the Puerto Plata project also follows the company’s support for the Buddy Bear installed on Santo Domingo’s Malecón in January 2025.
The Buddy Bear Route in the Dominican Republic
This tradition began in Berlin in 2001, using the characteristic Berlin bear as a global ambassador for peace, tolerance and understanding among peoples. With this addition, the official route in the country includes four required stops:
- Puerto Plata: Newly inaugurated on the Malecón.
- Santiago: Located in Parque Central.
- Santo Domingo (Malecón): At the corner of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln avenues.
- Santo Domingo (Colonial Zone): In the courtyard of the Centro Domínico-Alemán.
The Puerto Plata installation also fits into a broader Dominican-German relationship. Germany’s Federal Foreign Office estimates that roughly 7,000 Germans live in the Dominican Republic, with many concentrated on the north coast in Puerto Plata, Cabarete and Sosúa, as well as in Santo Domingo. That makes “El Puente” more than a foreign-sponsored landmark: it is being installed in one of the places where Dominican-German social and cultural ties are lived locally.
Puerto Plata also received 420,348 non-resident arrivals in 2024, according to the Dominican Tourism Ministry’s destination profile. German visitors represented 3% of that total. Germany is therefore a smaller market for the province than the United States or Canada, but the sculpture offers a visible landmark for German residents and visitors while reinforcing the destination’s cultural identity.
Buddy Bears in the Caribbean and Latin America
The presence of these colorful pieces is not limited to the Dominican Republic. The global network of peace ambassadors extends across the region through two formats: individual permanent sculptures and the celebrated traveling exhibitions of the complete group, known as United Buddy Bears.
Other key stops in the region:
- Jamaica (Kingston): The Jamaican capital has its own personalized Buddy Bear, designed by local artist Pamella Chang and unveiled at an official ceremony convened by the German Embassy.
- Cuba (Havana): In 2015, the historic Plaza de San Francisco de Asís hosted the major United Buddy Bears exhibition, bringing more than 120 life-size sculptures to the Caribbean.
- Guatemala (Antigua Guatemala): In 2019, the world tour transformed Antigua’s Parque Central with 148 life-size bears before moving to Guatemala City.
- Central America and the Caribbean Basin: Countries such as Belize, Costa Rica and Panama have their own bears designed by local artists and displayed in diplomatic missions, cultural spaces and educational venues as symbols of bilateral cooperation.
The Dominican installations form part of a wider regional cultural-diplomacy circuit. Santiago’s Buddy Bear was inaugurated in Parque Central in April 2025, while Santo Domingo’s Malecón installation followed in January 2025. These permanent individual bears are distinct from the large traveling United Buddy Bears exhibitions, including the 2019 presentation in Antigua Guatemala and Guatemala City.
Beyond decorating Puerto Plata’s Malecón, “El Puente” becomes a new meeting point for residents and visitors: a perfect excuse to pause, take a photo and see how art can shorten any distance.
