<P> The coat of arms was laid down in a law of 1954: </P> <P> § 1 (1) The coat of arms shows on a silver (white) shield, a black bear rampant with tongue and claws in red . On the shield rests a golden five leaved crest coronet, whose tiara of brickwork is provided with a gate in the center...§ 4 Decisive for the design of the state's coat of arms, the state's flag...are the patterns, added to this law . According to the state's coat of arms, an artistic design is reserved to special purposes . </P> <P> The bear has come to be used as the mascot of Berlin, and was used almost excessively by local authorities, so that Hans Brendicke, editor of the journal of the Historical Society of Berlin, in 1896 remarked on the ubiquity of badly designed bears in Berlin . A member of the Historical Society went on to collect a total of 273 different representations of bears in Berlin . Hildebrandt in 1915 again complained about the excesses of variation in the bear, especially deviation from the Prussian tincture of black on white . </P> <P> The bear has remained the city's mascot, and in 2001 has been developed into the so - called Berlin Buddy Bears, fiberglass sculptures of bears first introduced in 2001, have been used to promote the qualities of "tolerance" and Weltoffenheit (cosmopolitanism) associated with the city . </P>

What is the significance of the bear in berlin