Big Trouble in ‘Tiny Berlin’: This Small Settlement Split in Half by the Cold War Era

A brook so shallow you hardly got your feet wet split a community for over four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by evergreen groves, meadows and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of residents started commemorating their history. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum 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 entirely prepared. Telling the locals who experienced the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the residents gathering in the very same inn, visiting the identical place of worship and enrolling their children to the identical educational institution.

After the War Split

Then came the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Russians installed wood stakes by the creek. For a year they occupied the whole village, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to retreat across the brook. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as limitations increased they were required to show ID, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could still view each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side signaling and shouting were banned. A local woman was added to a Stasi watch list for answering “likewise” to a western resident who said her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

It was related to me stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his occupational time developing it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they wished to preserve. They selected a stretch on the west edge, adjacent to where one of their own managed to get away in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was significantly fortified.

Conserved Installations

A pair of watchtowers are preserved in addition to a series of tableaux illustrating the most significant dates in the village’s history. As we stroll, the director enumerates the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to care for their produce; the husband or wife could operate the combine harvester but not both, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most, but in excess of twice as many individuals (more than 300) were killed seeking to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between two political systems by avoiding attention and tending to their farms. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand came to see each year, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Modern Changes

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, store, movie theater and sizable parking lot – is expected to