Major Trouble in ‘Miniature Berlin’: The Tiny Settlement Separated in Half by the Cold War

An stream so low you hardly got your feet wet divided a community for in excess of four decades. Due to a quirk of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own division was opened, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a group of residents set about memorialising their past. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Speaking to the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore families apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house best known for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the residents gathering in the very same tavern, attending the very same church and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

Post-War Separation

Then came the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the entire hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to withdraw back over the creek. For a while, residents could continue to hop over, though as limitations increased they were forced to display identification, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to come back at night.

Increase of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could continue to observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “likewise” to a West German resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard narratives including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a large part of his professional career developing it. Residents were consulted early on about how what length of wall they desired to keep. They selected a section on the west perimeter, close to where a local resident succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Installations

Two guard towers are maintained in addition to a series of exhibits illustrating the most significant events in the community’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director enumerates the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required special permission to tend to their crops; the husband or wife could operate the combine harvester but not the pair, in case they sought to escape. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but over two times more people (more than 300) died attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director reminds me that 95% of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They did not backed the communist regime nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a type of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to visit annually, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Modern Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and big vehicle area – is likely to