Major Difficulties in ‘Tiny Berlin’: This Small Hamlet Separated in Two by the Cold War

An creek so low you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a village for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of residents began documenting their past. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely prepared. Telling the locals who lived through the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which pulled families asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped households apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male members the designation Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals gathering in the very same tavern, visiting the very same religious building and enrolling their kids to the very same school.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops put up wood stakes by the creek. For a year they seized the whole community, setting up their headquarters in a building on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to retreat back over the stream. For a period, villagers could still cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to present identification, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could continue to observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “likewise” to a western villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his working life creating it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they wanted to preserve. They chose a section on the west fringe, close to where one of their own succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was substantially fortified.

Conserved Structures

2 guard towers are preserved alongside a set of exhibits depicting the most dramatic moments in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, the director enumerates the rules: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required special permission to look after their crops; the partner could work the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, in case they tried to escape. Soldiers stood watch.

Larger Background

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but more than twice as many persons (well over 300) died seeking to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to dwelling in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and tending to their land. They did not supported the communist regime nor opposed it, the director explains.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a type of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand came to see every year, binoculars in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Modern Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and sizable car park – is likely to