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Berlin's Märkisches Museum Mystery
The "Berliner Originale" explanation is right, but there's more to it. Those figurines were actually commissioned by the city in the 1870s as a kind of social commentary on gentrification, believe it or not. The artist, a guy named Gustav Bläser, made them to satirize the new rich who were pushing out the old working class from the Mitte district. The one that looks sinister is probably "Der Wucherer," meant to mock a landlord who jacked up rents near Alexanderplatz. If you want the full backstory, the Stadtmuseum's archive at the Ephraim-Palais has a whole folder on them, you can request it at the reading room for free.
I know exactly which ones you mean. They're part of a series called the "Berliner Originale," which were these satirical caricatures of famous local characters from the 19th century. The one you're describing sounds like it might be "Der Zankteufel" (the quarrel devil), which was meant to mock a notoriously grumpy street vendor from the old Nikolaiviertel. The museum's been terrible about labeling them since they redid that wing a few years ago.
honestly i bet theyre part of some old folk art collection berlin had a huge porcelain industry in the 1700s. maybe try the kunstgewerbemuseum they might know more.
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What is the correct spelling for a street name that appears differently on multiple signs in Charlottenburg?
Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.
if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point
honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.