Serious Problems in ‘Tiny Berlin’: This Small Hamlet Split in Half by the Cold War

A creek so narrow you hardly got your feet wet divided a community for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people began commemorating their past. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped relatives asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which ripped families apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals socializing in the same tavern, going to the same church and sending their young ones to the very same educational institution.

After the War Division

Then came the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Russians erected timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they took over the entire hamlet, creating their command in a building on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces persuaded them to retreat back over the creek. For a while, locals could still hop over, though as controls tightened they were forced to show ID, although all knew who they were, and to go back at night.

Escalation of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The locals could still see each other by scaling slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and calling out were banned. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a western villager who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I heard accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time building it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wanted to preserve. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian edge, near where a local resident succeeded to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Installations

Two guard towers are conserved in addition to a set of tableaux showing the most impactful events in the community’s chronicle. As we stroll, Lebergen details the rules: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to tend to their crops; the spouse could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Context

The border between Western Germany and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but over double the number people (well over 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director informs me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between two political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to visit annually, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Current Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and sizable car park – is expected to