It would be a shame to leave Berlin without investigating the phenomenon of Ostalgie -- nostalgia for life in the old East Germany.

CNN: Berlin: Where to shop

Ostalgie (nostalgia for the east) is all the rage.

ECONOMIST: A wild repackaging of German history

In the mid-1990s, an early Ostalgie-retailer, mondosarts.com, fought plans to reshape him to comply with European Union standards, winning him a reprieve in east Berlin and the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.

ECONOMIST: A wild repackaging of German history