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

A brook so low you barely got your ankles wet divided a community for in excess of four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Several months after their own division was breached, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a group of villagers set about commemorating their heritage. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel division, which pulled households apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the residents drinking in the very same tavern, visiting the identical place of worship and placing their young ones to the same educational institution.

After the War Division

Then came the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the brook. For a year they occupied the complete hamlet, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a while, locals could still jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were required to present identification, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could continue to view each other by scaling slopes, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was placed on a Stasi monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a western villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his working life creating it. Locals were asked in the initial phases about how much barrier they desired to preserve. They chose a portion on the west fringe, near where one of their own was able to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Buildings

Two watchtowers are preserved together with a collection of tableaux depicting the most dramatic dates in the village’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to look after their produce; the partner could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the two, in case they attempted to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but over double the number people (more than 300) died attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that 95% of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They did not backed the communist regime nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to visit each year, optical devices in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Modern Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and sizable vehicle area – is probable to