Ostalgie

Ostalgie is a German term referring to nostalgia for aspects of life in East Germany. It is a pun with the German words Nostalgie (nostalgia) and Ost (east).

The term Ostalgie (along with the phrase "soviet chic") is also occasionally used to refer to nostalgia for life under the socialist system in other former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and the Soviet Union.

History

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the German reunification that followed a year later, many of the symbols of the German Democratic Republic were swept away. Almost all GDR brands (DDR in German) of products disappeared from the stores and were replaced by Western products. However, after some time most of the Eastern Germans began to miss more or less aspects of their former lives (like culture or the known brand marks). Ostalgie particularly refers to the nostalgia for aspects of regular daily life and culture in the former GDR, which disappeared after reunification.