For many, the films Goodbye Lenin and The Lives Of Others started the cult: nostalgia for the old East Germany.

An interesting example is the Ostel, a Berlin hostel full of communist era kitch. The website describes it as a ‘Design Hostel’. In fact many junk shops were scoured for hideous rugs, non-working radios and old pictures of Honecker.

The collection proved too much for real Ostalgia freaks who picked off some communist treasures as souvenirs. This prompted the manager to open a DDR souvenir shop of tacky nostalgia ware.

The Ostel is housed in a ‘Plattenbau’ - the East German version of the Soviet pre-fab apartment block. There’s no Stasi Suite but budget travellers can choose to bunk up in the Pioneer Dormitory. Organised tours of Berlin are by Trabant naturally.

My only big disappointment was the new laminate flooring but certainly the outside has that authentic, uninviting look.

The Ostel claims to have the odd East German guest but it’s obvious that nostalgia isn’t what it used to be. Some insist that East Germany’s culture was snatched away too quickly. On the other hand, figures show that the DDR was bankrupt and doomed anyway. So much so that it was actually selling those trapped behind the wall to the West.

Between 1963-1990, the West German government paid a total of 3.44 billion Deutsche Marks, roughly 1.8 billion euros ($2.62 billion) for the release of nearly 32,000 prisoners and 2,000 children from the communist East.

The clandestine trade began with suitcases of Deutschmarks, but it soon became a barter for goods - oil, metals, chemicals and in some cases people were swapped for bananas. Presumably those people won’t be coming back to stay at the Ostel.