Unpacking Berlin's mysterious tote bag

A design with no known author has wound its way through the German capital

In Berlin, the bag is everywhere. Hot young dads slip it over one shoulder. Older German women pull knitting from its mouth. This canvas tote is carried by 12-year-olds on field trips, by harried white-collar workers with their laptops, by the homeless and by many, many stylish people.

Its design — black Gothic print interrupted by what vaguely resembles a red wax seal — is distinctive. It gives off the illusion of readable text, leaving passers-by squinting after it, trying to decipher its meaning.

The bag is to Berlin what a New Yorker tote is to that magazine’s namesake metropolis, or a