Major Difficulties in ‘Tiny Berlin’: This Small Settlement Divided in Half by the Cold War

An creek so low you scarcely got your ankles wet split a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people started documenting their past. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Telling the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which pulled families apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity never stood in the way of the locals gathering in the same tavern, visiting the same religious building and enrolling their young ones to the identical learning center.

After the War Division

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they came, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the brook. For a year they took over the complete community, setting up their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to pull back back over the creek. For a time, residents could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to show identity papers, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Boundary Measures

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were banned. A female resident was added to a Stasi watch list for replying “likewise” to a western local who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his occupational time building it. Locals were consulted at an early stage about how how long a section wall they desired to keep. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian fringe, close to where one of their own succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the boundary was heavily fortified.

Maintained Structures

A pair of watchtowers are maintained in addition to a collection of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we move, the director enumerates the rules: no one could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to care for their crops; the partner could work the combine harvester but not both, lest they tried to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Perspective

The frontier between Western Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but over two times more persons (well over 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They neither backed the communist regime nor fought it, the director states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a type of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k came to see annually, binoculars in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional village like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Modern Evolutions

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is probable to