Check This Out, Comrade

Now's The Time To Come To The Aid Of The Party

Too young to remember East Germany? No worries, you can just go to a Berlin hotel called Ostel. The hotel, which opened last month, re-creates a pre-1989 era of brown and orange wallpaper, spartan furnishings and Politburo portraits. In the reception area, four clocks show the time in Moscow, Berlin, Havana and Beijing. The hotel was the brainchild of two former East German circus performers, Daniel Helbig and Guido Sand, who recognised the wave of interest for some aspects of life in former East Germany, expressed in the cult status of Trabant cars and the hit film `Goodbye Lenin'. So how on earth did they find all the Communist-era furnishings? Easy - they tracked them down in private homes and furniture dealers. A display case in the lobby even contains a rare roll of GDR toilet paper.