Big Problems in ‘Tiny Berlin’: This Small Village Separated in Two by the Cold War Era

A stream so low you barely got your feet wet split a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a partition. United States military personnel called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their state had become one in 1990, a assembly of residents set about memorialising their heritage. The work is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite finished. Telling the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal split, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which ripped relatives asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Origins

Even at its creation in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the identical tavern, visiting the same church and sending their kids to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Split

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians put up wooden posts by the creek. For a year they occupied the entire village, setting up their command in a house on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to withdraw across the stream. For a period, residents could still cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were required to present identification, although everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were banned. A female resident was put on a Stasi watch list for answering “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a large part of his working life developing it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they desired to keep. They chose a stretch on the west edge, adjacent to where one of their own was able to flee in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

2 observation towers are maintained together with a series of exhibits showing the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director lists the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to care for their crops; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but never both, for fear that they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Context

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the greatest, but more than two times more individuals (well over 300) were killed attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by avoiding attention and tending to their farms. They neither backed the communist regime nor fought it, the director explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to visit annually, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, cinema room and big parking lot – is expected to