Sign of the Apocalypse #48: Retro communist chic
By Michael J.W. Stickings
As the BBC is reporting, a new hotel in Berlin, Ostel -- Das DDR Hostel, "offers guests a choice of rooms in the style of the old eastern bloc". You can even stay in the "Stasi Suite". (No word if you can pay to have Katarina Witt -- "the most beautiful face of socialism," as Time once called her -- report your reactionary capitalist goings-on to Stasi personally.)
How charming. Perfect for that totalitarian family vacation you've been planning.
And when you're done in Berlin, why not try out these related destinations:
As the BBC is reporting, a new hotel in Berlin, Ostel -- Das DDR Hostel, "offers guests a choice of rooms in the style of the old eastern bloc". You can even stay in the "Stasi Suite". (No word if you can pay to have Katarina Witt -- "the most beautiful face of socialism," as Time once called her -- report your reactionary capitalist goings-on to Stasi personally.)
How charming. Perfect for that totalitarian family vacation you've been planning.
And when you're done in Berlin, why not try out these related destinations:
- Killing Fields Holiday Inn (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
- Goebbels Third Reich B&B (Nürnberg , Germany)
- Gulag Archipelago Fantasy Camp (Novosibirsk, Russia)
- Il Duce Golf & Country Club (Naples, Italy)
- Franco's Fascist Naturist Resort (Madrid, Spain)
- Baath Bathhouse (Baghdad, Iraq)
- Hilton Hermit Kingdom (unknown)
For more information, Google.
**********
Update: My tourism contact in Cambodia e-mailed me a recommendation this morning. In addition to serving a mighty fine "continental" breakfast (continent unspecified), the in-house restaurant at the K.F. Holiday Inn in Phnom Penh, the Khmer Khafé, offers a "Pol Pot Luck Special" every Saturday from 10-2. It's a variation on dim sum, with each dish served, as authenticity would seem to require, in a human skull.
Labels: Communism, Germany, Sign of the Apocalypse
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
1:25 AM
2 Comments:
Michael, you're staying up too late. Go to bed. Kidding . . .
Clever post, and chilling just to remember those days.
By
Carol Gee, at 6:48 AM
Well, there was a certain je ne sais quoi or should I say (ich weiss nicht was soll es bedeuten)about Berlin during the cold war. A bit of real life cinema noir, a surreal amount of privation and rubble in the streets mixed with grandiose government posturing. It's all about atmosphere, I think, rather than about longing for oppression. Maybe it's just fun to be able to relive the days of Checkpoint Charlie and Spy Vs. Spy without really having to worry about your sordid execution in some dank basement.
I think veterans of Gettysburg would be equally as puzzled by the people who meet to re-enact that battle every year.
By
Capt. Fogg, at 9:47 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home