Ostalgie

GDR T-shirts, for sale in Berlin in 2004

GDR Memorabilia for sale in Berlin in 2006

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

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 Eastern Europe, most notably 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 of products disappeared from the stores and were replaced by Western products. However, with the passing of time some East Germans began to feel nostalgia for certain aspects of their lives in East Germany. Ostalgie particularly refers to the nostalgia for aspects of regular daily life and culture in the former GDR, which disappeared after reunification.

Next to such trivial nostalgia, 'Ostalgie' was also inspired by the absence of unemployment and poverty in the DDR. Indeed, ostalgie could be inspired by the longing of the Ossies for the social system and the sense of community of the DDR. Before 1990, there was no unemployment or poverty in the eastern part of Germany. When the renowned West-German magazine Der Spiegel asked former DDR-inhabitants whether the DDR "was the better state" (compared to present-day Germany), 57% of them answered yes. To the statement of the interviewing journalist that "DDR inhabitants did not have the freedom to travel wherever they wanted", Germans replied that "present-day low-wage workers do not have that freedom either".

Manifestations

An Ost-Ampelmännchen crosswalk light

Many businesses in Germany cater to those who feel Ostalgie and have begun providing them with artifacts that remind them of life under the GDR; artifacts that imitate the old ones. Now available are formerly defunct brands of East German foodstuffs, old state television programmes on video and DVD, and the previously widespread Wartburg and Trabant cars. In addition, life in the GDR has been the subject of several recent films, including Leander Haußmann's Sonnenallee (1999), Wolfgang Becker's internationally successful Good Bye Lenin! (2003), and Carsten Fiebeler's Kleinruppin forever (2004).

Those seeking the preservation of East German culture banded together to save Ossie Crosswalk Man (Ost-Ampelmännchen), an illuminated depiction of a fedora wearing man in crosswalk lights. Many German cities in and near the former East German border, including Berlin, Lübeck and Erfurt, still retain the use of the Ampelmännchen at all or some pedestrian crossings due to its cultural relevance, and many souvenirs sold in East Germany and in Berlin (at Checkpoint Charlie) make use of the icon.

See also

• Ostrock
• Die anderen Bands
• Culture of the German Democratic Republic
• Vita-Cola: an example of a product revived by Ostalgie
• Ampelmännchen: the waiting/walking man used in East German pedestrian traffic lights, which became a distinctive mascot for the Ostalgie movement
• Trabant: East German automobile produced until 1991; for some, an icon of East Germany.
• Yugo-nostalgia: a similar phenomenon in the former Yugoslavia
• The Legend of Rita: Film precursor of Ostalgie
• Good Bye Lenin!: A satirical film involving a post-reunification deception.
• Sonnenallee: Film that has been accused of "glorifying" the GDR
• The Lives of Others: Film that could be seen as a counterpoint to Ostalgie

Books

• Banchelli, Eva: Taste the East: Linguaggi e forme dell'Ostalgie, Sestante Edizioni, Bergamo 2006, ISBN 88-87445-92-3.
• Banchelli, Eva: Ostalgie: eine vorläufige Bilanz, in Fabrizio Cambi (Hg.): Gedächtnis und Identitat. Die deutsche Literatur der Wiedervereinigung, Würzburg, Koenigshausen & Neumann, 2008, pp. 57–68.
• Berdahl, Daphne: On the Social Life of Postsocialism: Memory, Consumption, Germany (2009)
• Rota, Andrea: Testi pubblicitari ostalgici: una breve analisi semiotica, In Linguistica e filologia 24/2007, pp. 137-152, ISSN|1594–6517.

External links

• "Ostalgie", post from The New York Times
• "Germans miss the 'good old days' of the GDR ", France 24, October 3, 2008
• Criticism of historical transfiguration, Englis summary
• "Ostalgie" discussion on H-German