Introspection and nostalgia are rife ahead of the 20th anniversary of German reunification -- and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has joined the trend. In an unusually candid magazine interview she explained how her habits still bear the hallmarks of growing up in communist East Germany.

Whether she is relaxing in her river-side apartment after a long day at the Reichstag or mingling with international premiers, Angela Merkel's day-to-day life is a far cry from her experience of growing up in the German Democratic Republic. But in a new interview, the German head of state admitted that her habits are still influenced by her experiences under communism.

"Sometimes I buy something because I have set my eyes on it, even though I don't really need it," she told the German magazine Super Illu, which is widely read in the former east. "This penchant for stockpiling lies somewhere deeply inside me, because living amid the shortages (in the GDR) you just took whatever you could get."