apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

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.

Nobody was forced to decorate like that. Most couldn't afford it. A guy I used to work with grew up in communist Checkoslovakia and told me a few things about daily life there.

If you want to see an excellent *non-political* movie about the life of average people, watch the movie Kolya (DVD). It's in Czech with subtitles but worth the watch, I think. I don't remember the decor but the story line is interesting.


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As to nostalgia - we were safer during the cold war than now.

Since the cold war ended we've been within 30 seconds of blowing up the world. One Russian officer basically saved the world by refusing to launch his missiles when ordered to. A very brave guy that we all owe our lives to.

With the end of the Soviet Union, their radar early warning system is decaying, and liquid fueled missiles are rotting in their silos.

There's *tremendous* pressure to "use it or lose it". Their early warning systems are said to be in such bad shape that they don't think they can adequately detect a first strike, so their nerves are very much on edge.

In 1995, Yeltsin opened his "nuclear football" for the first time in history when an atmospheric sounding rocket launched from Norway triggered an attack alert.

The "good news" is they're starting to deploy more solid fuel missiles, which takes a lot of the pressure off because they're more reliable, and so the "use it or lose it" pressure is a lot less.

I'm not going to post links because I assume everyone has the History Channel, the Military Channel, PBS, and knows how to use Google. It's all out there. Go find it.

I will popst this link which has most of the details. If you believe the lie that "no missiles are targeted at the US", this will be a shock.

http://www.iwp.edu/news/newsID.321/news_detail.asp

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.

I like the wallpaper in the last image, and the hanging lamp in the first...

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.

Tamaca - if you knew what went on in the Stasi interrogation rooms, I doubt you'd be *able* to eat in sight of them.

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)?

Got my incidents a little mixed up.

Stanislov Petrov, who is credited with saving the world from nuclear annihilation, certified what everyone else was convinced was an attack on the USSR to be a false alarm. It happened in 1983. Regardless, the man is a hero.

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003545.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/coldwar/shatter021099b.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

Actually, NAZI architecture is much more to my taste if you are going to celebrate right-wing style. Albert Speer kicked @55!

http://tinyurl.com/2d6f6w

"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.