Berlin gripped by ‘ostalgia’ for Cold War era

The Berlin Wall effectively kept East Germans captive inside one of history’s most hardline communist regimes.

Now, more than 22 years after East Berliners were united with their countrymen and the world, there is a growing nostalgia for the hallmarks of the Cold War era.

Even tourists are getting in on “ostalgia”, a German term that describes a sense of longing for the time before the fall of the Soviet Bloc.

Many visitors tour the city in Trabants, the iconic, albeit clunky, vehicle of German reunification.

Al Jazeera’s Nick Spicer reports from Berlin.