For once, I don't mind yellow in the bedroom. :D

It's so funny, but when I see these rooms, I don't really think Communist.

I do think Op Art, which seemed slightly trippily hallucinenagenic which must have sneaked into the Communist world under the radar, while some of their people were trying self-medicate under the oppression. As our own people over here seemed to have been doing, by the way.

Anyway... they're very cheery in their way. By the way, you can things in a hotel for a night that you might not be able to live with over the long haul in a home.

Curtis, you are correct. Any hotel decor is fine with me as long as my bed bug check is negative.

I think that one thing you need to remember here is that when you stay in a hotel decorated like that, you made a choice. You could choose that decor or you could get a hotel room decorated in Louis XIV style at the Ritz, if you'd like, or a Philippe Starck modernist room at the W. It is up to you, because the market allows different competing styles to exist and finding market niches. In the communist era, people HAD to decorate their place like that or live in complete squallor because that's all that there was. I hope that people don't lose sight of that.

And I hope that the person who wrote this blogpost doesn't take lightly how outright evil the Stasi were (e.g. spraying dissidents with radioactive isotopes so that stasi agents could spot and follow the dissidents around town).

According to the Economist, nostalgia for the good ol' days of communism is hot in portions of Eastern Europe, particularly Russia.

yep. nostalgia for the good'ol times of communism is quite common, albeit less so than a few years back, it's something that, at least in germany, has come and gone. it's referred to as "Ostalgie" - ("Eastalgia", Ost = East).

Which also explains the name of the hotel:

East Hostel = Ostel

reminds me of my rooms when I worked in the USSR (in a cinematically sanitized way). Pre-Glasnost sputnik baroque.

For some good communist nostalgia, check out the film "Good Bye, Lenin!"

I think the nostalgia might be akin to how some people who have terrible parents might somehow long for the days when they, themselve, were young just anyway, because at least everything was their parents' responsibility/fault, and even if things were bad, it was somehow easier than having to make their own choices see the world in a less shielded way.

If they were oppressed somehow then, perhaps their lives have less structure? I'm not really accusing anyone, I'm just saying that it's not hard to imagine that kind of psycho-socio-political landscape.

i love this. but i wonder if they have bedbugs.

In the communist era, people HAD to decorate their place like that or live in complete squallor because that's all that there was. I hope that people don't lose sight of that.

In the communist era, people in their 40s still lived with their parents because they couldn't afford to move out, and middle-class housing in many cities behind the Iron Curtain had about the same architectural charm as 1960s housing projects here in the U.S. do. Concrete block walls, anyone?

I'd assumed the communist nostalgia is spurred by somewhat of the same engine as the 1950s nostalgia here. It looks like a simpler time compared to the more chaotic recent past; sure, there was nastiness, but ah! the lure of the illusion that once things made sense and had order! It's easy to forget nastiness that wasn't targeted at you directly -- or to discount it if you're too young to have experienced it.

Maybe I'm just not with-it enough, but I find these rooms really unappealing. Any piece individually might not be bad, but together they just strike me as grim and institutional. Not so unlike the descriptions I've heard of living under communism from Russian friends of mine.

And I hope to never hear the phrase "that Stasi style" again. Ever.

For actual Stasi sytle, you can go to the former Stasi headquarters in East Berlin - it's a truly fascinating museum, kept in much the same condition as that day in 1989 when those in the neighborhood stormed the building to liberate it. You can even have a meal in the cafeteria! With a view of the "interogation" rooms!

Doubt if I could live with it everyday, but the lime green wall with the tomatoe red chairs is fabulous. Haven't a clue how authentic this is, but the rooms are quite cheery (as I would expect if I was paying to stay).

Thanks.

Isn't this completely tongue in cheek though? I mean, the place is in Mitte.

"But the Mitte District is in Berlin... Can you fill in those of us who have no clue (me)?"

Right, Mitte is in East Berlin (the formerly Communist side), but it's also the centre of contemporary German hipsterdom (and I mean that in the best way possible!).

The area of Mitte has a number of abandoned buildings - some taken over by anarchist squatters, others repurposed as chic boutiques, galleries, bars... So much there feels deconstructed and transitioning, but there is something playful or investigatory about it.

All I meant by my comment above is that I wouldn't take the Ostel as a literal celebration of "Stasi style" or a longing for the past.

Noch ein Kopfkissen, bitte!

well I lived in eastern europe back when it was in the eastern BLOCK.

and very FEW hotels were that nice back then!

This is Faux-Communist Chic - but still fun.

Hmmm........looks kind of "Brady Bunch" to me......and I'm not nostalgic for that, either.