Big Trouble in ‘Tiny Berlin’: The Minuscule Settlement Divided in Half by the Cold War Era

A brook so low you barely got your feet wet divided a village for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, pastures and stunning scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own division was torn down, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of residents set about memorialising their history. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite finished. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which pulled families into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for giving all its men the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the quirk never stood in the way of the locals gathering in the same tavern, going to the very same place of worship and placing their children to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces erected timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the complete hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to display ID, although all knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Border Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a Stasi watch list for answering “same to you” to a western resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Development

I was told narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his working life building it. Villagers were polled in the initial phases about how how long a section wall they wanted to keep. They selected a stretch on the west fringe, near where a villager was able to get away in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

2 observation towers are preserved in addition to a set of tableaux showing the most dramatic moments in the community’s chronicle. As we walk, the director details the rules: nobody could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents needed specific authorization to care for their produce; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Context

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but over double the number people (well over 300) died attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit every year, optical devices in their hands, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and large parking lot – is expected to