Last updated on 10/27/2026
East Germany has been history for more than three decades, yet it is still tangible in many corners of Berlin. If you want to take the wheel yourself, the Trabi Safari in Mitte sends you rattling through the city centre in a convoy and hands you your own Trabi licence at the end. In Friedrichshain, the Volkskammer serves breaded hunting sausage schnitzel and solyanka in a dining room full of original furniture, pennants and portraits of the party leadership. Over in Prenzlauer Berg, the Bäckerei & Konditorei M. Biesewski still bakes its Alt-Berliner bread rolls as small and dense as they once were. From the freshly restored Kino International on Karl-Marx-Allee to the last ketwurst stand in the city, this list shows where Ostalgie in Berlin is more than a souvenir. Which of these places would you most like to travel back in time at?
Ellen Mehrhoff-Roddewig
I was born after reunification, but the small relics of the East fascinate me to this day. I had the most fun on the Trabi Safari, when the two-stroke engine vibrated beneath me, and at the Kino International, which looks as if it has been frozen in time. For this list I gathered the places where nostalgia for the East comes with humour rather than kitsch.
With the Trabi Safari in Mitte, you don't sit in the back of a tour bus, but rather at the wheel of a two-stroke vehicle yourself. Around a hundred Trabis are ready on Zimmerstraße, driven in a convoy of up to six cars, with the guide commenting via radio. For Ostalgie in Berlin, this is the version with a clutch, four-speed gearshift, and the smell of a two-stroke engine.
The Kino International on Karl-Marx-Allee was the premiere cinema of the DEFA and has been back in operation since February 2026 after a renovation costing around 15 million Euros. The floating foyer bar from 1963, the concrete relief on the side walls, and the panoramic bar have remained. For Ostalgie in Berlin, this is the place with the greatest contrast between concrete and glamour.
The Wall Museum East Side Gallery is located in the old mill granary at the Oberbaum Bridge, i.e., in the former death strip. In 13 rooms, over 100 screens, original wall segments, and interviews with contemporary witnesses recount the years from 1945 to 1990. Those looking for 'Ostalgie' in Berlin will find a counter-narrative here: the GDR from the perspective of those who wanted to leave.
The Volkskammer in Straße der Pariser Kommune has been serving exclusively GDR cuisine since 2010: Hunter's schnitzel made from breaded Jagdwurst, homemade Soljanka, Goldbroiler, and Quarkkeulchen. In the dining room, pennants, a mural of the Palace of the Republic, and portraits of the state leadership hang. Ostalgia in Berlin gets a menu here instead of a display case.
The first ever Ampelmann Shop is located in the fifth courtyard of the Hackesche Höfe, opened in 2001 by Markus Heckhausen, who initially assembled the lamps himself. Over 600 products revolve around the figure that Karl Peglau designed for East Berlin traffic lights in 1961. Eastalgia in Berlin thus has an address where it has become a brand.
The DDR Speisegaststätte Pionierlager on Prenzlauer Allee is a restaurant and private GDR collection in one. Fifty seats are arranged between display cases full of everyday objects from forty years of East Germany. The menu features Jägerschnitzel made from Jagdwurst, Soljanka, and Grilletta. Here, Ostalgia in Berlin means eating the GDR instead of just looking at it.
Bäckerei & Konditorei M. Biesewski in Pasteurstraße in Bötzowkiez bakes in its own in-house bakery, without preservatives and with nine employees. It is famous for its Old Berlin Schrippen, which are as small and compact as in GDR times. If you want to taste rather than visit Ostalgie in Berlin, you queue up here in the morning.
The Berlin Wall Trail follows the former border strip around West Berlin for about 160 kilometers, along the patrol road of the GDR border troops and the old customs path. Fourteen sections, between 7 and 21 kilometers long, each begin and end at a train station. Ostalgia takes on a different color here, because on this route, the GDR is not a backdrop, but topography.
Gaststätte W. Prassnik on Torstraße in Mitte claims to be a replica of an HO Gaststätte, a state-run GDR establishment. They serve home-brewed Prassnik beer in a light and a dark variety. Reservations are not possible. For Ostalgie in Berlin, this is the most unassuming address in the city.
Alain Snack is located directly at the Schönhauser Allee S-Bahn and U-Bahn station and is considered Berlin's last snack bar selling Ketwurst made according to a GDR recipe: a long bun pierced with a hot metal cylinder, the Bockwurst dipped in ketchup. You can hardly eat more 'Ostalgie' in Berlin for little money, and the brightly tiled stall is part of the scene.
