Ostalgie
Ostalgie is a German term referring to nostalgia for life in the former East Germany. It is a pun on the German words Nostalgie (nostalgia) and Ost (east).
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification, most reminders of the old communist regime were swept away as former East German citizens rushed to embrace their newfound political and economic freedoms. However, with the passing of time many felt they missed certain things about their old lives, and Ostalgie was born.
Many businesses in Germany now cater to those suffering from the Ostalgie, providing no-longer-available East German foodstuffs, old state television programmes on video and DVD, Trabant and Wartburg cars and so on. Formerly almost a taboo subject, life in the former East Germany has now become the subject of several films, including Wolfgang Becker's internationally-successful Good bye, Lenin! (2003).
The term is occasionally used to refer to nostalgia for life under Soviet rule in some of the other former Communist countries of Eastern Europe, most notably Poland.
