Big Difficulties in ‘Miniature Berlin’: This Tiny Hamlet Divided in Two by the Cold War Period

An creek so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a community for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own wall was breached, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of local people set about documenting their past. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely ready. Addressing the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which tore households asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the locals drinking in the identical tavern, attending the same religious building and sending their young ones to the same learning center.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russians erected wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the complete hamlet, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers convinced them to pull back across the brook. For a while, residents could continue to hop over, though as limitations tightened they were forced to present ID, although each person knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was built, with landmines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still see each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side waving and yelling were banned. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “back at you” to a West German local who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I heard accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Residents were polled at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they desired to keep. They selected a stretch on the western fringe, near where one of their own managed to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was heavily fortified.

Maintained Structures

Two watchtowers are preserved alongside a series of displays showing the most impactful events in the community’s history. As we walk, Lebergen lists the rules: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed particular approval to tend to their fields; the spouse could work the harvesting machine but never the two, lest they tried to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but over twice as many individuals (well over 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by avoiding attention and caring for their land. They neither backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. Approximately 15,000 came to visit each year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Current Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and sizable parking lot – is expected to