Germans buy gherkins and Zeha trainers in wave of nostalgia for East ahead of Berlin Wall anniversary
German retailers have seen a huge spike in demand for products from the defunct Communist East as the country prepares to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall next month.
From gherkins to trainers and toothpaste to cola drinks, the consumer goods of a lost nation are now top of the shopping lists for millions of people - who are spending €100 million (£92 million) a year on former East German goods.
Zeha trainers are a case in point: once ridiculed by the Nike and Adidas-wearing West, the athletic shoes of the masses in the German Democratic Republic are now sold from a specialty shop on Kurfurstendamm, Berlin's most expensive shopping mile.
Observers say the latest love-in with the products of a nation that still exists in the minds of many goes beyond the simple "Ostalgie", or nostalgia for the East, that swept over Germany in the wake of reunification.
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
From gherkins to trainers and toothpaste to cola drinks, the consumer goods of a lost nation are now top of the shopping lists for millions of people - who are spending €100 million (£92 million) a year on former East German goods.
Zeha trainers are a case in point: once ridiculed by the Nike and Adidas-wearing West, the athletic shoes of the masses in the German Democratic Republic are now sold from a specialty shop on Kurfurstendamm, Berlin's most expensive shopping mile.
Observers say the latest love-in with the products of a nation that still exists in the minds of many goes beyond the simple "Ostalgie", or nostalgia for the East, that swept over Germany in the wake of reunification.