kolkata following the death of hans modrow the last communist pm of east germany on friday a wave of communist nostalgia spread across kolkata for those who visited east berlin in the late 1980s and early 1990s biman bhattacharjee who has been working to foster indorussian cultural and artistic ties recalled visiting east berlin every year between 1984 and 1990 when he was a student at moscow university from moscow i would take a train past all the soviet satellite countries and the final stop would be east berlin while transit from east to west berlin was heavily restricted for locals for foreigners like me we would have to enter west berlin through an immigration check point near the berlin wall up till east berlin there was a cultural uniformity in the clothes buildings and streets of all the satellite states upon entering west berlin wed notice a marked difference jeans were not yet available in the east we would bring memorabilia from west berlin back to eastern europe my friends would stitch together clothes imitating the western styles that we would bring back with us he said east berlin residents typically spoke russian as their second language with many elderly people even today preferring russian over english modrow who died at 95 took office in 1989 and remained for the winter until the first and only free elections of east germany were held in march 1990 ballygunge resident santanu ghosh recalled the glaring difference in the environment between east berlin and bonn the capital of west germany from 1949 to 1990 i remember a visit shortly after the berlin wall fell consulate offices from across the world started cropping up in the previously empty spaces around brandenburg gate he said for those in kolkata growing up in the shadow of the fall of the berlin wall german unification signified an alienation from a familiar political legacy that bengal aligned itself with as a result increasingly rare east german memorabilia hit a sentimental soft spot for kolkata travellers in the 1990s the unchanging east german automobile trabant became one of the most iconic popular culture symbols of the 20th century talking about the swelling gloom of thinking about the fall of the wall ghosh said it was sad for people in kolkata to see such changes sweep across the continentfor kolkata youths born just after the fall of the wall the unique fragmented histories that connect bengal and germany became the basis of sustained curiosity of the legacy of life behind the iron curtain former student of german language sombit banerjee said common history of east and west divisions of a state prompted him to develop an interest in east german culture