Major Problems in ‘Tiny Berlin’: This Minuscule Village Separated in Half by the Cold War

An brook so low you hardly got your feet wet split a village for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and before their state had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers started commemorating their past. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Telling the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel division, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Past Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk never stood in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the identical inn, going to the very same church and sending their young ones to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they came, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the complete village, establishing their command in a building on the western side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to retreat back over the stream. For a period, locals could still jump across, though as limitations increased they were obliged to show identification, although each person was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with mines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The residents could continue to see each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police watch list for responding “back at you” to a West German villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me accounts including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his occupational time building it. Residents were polled early on about how what length of wall they wished to maintain. They selected a section on the west fringe, close to where a villager succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

Two watchtowers are preserved alongside a set of exhibits illustrating the most impactful moments in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, the director details the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the border. Farmers required specific authorization to look after their fields; the husband or wife could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances both, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the greatest, but over twice as many persons (more than 300) died attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15,000 visited annually, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, led to fresh interest.

Modern Changes

The opening of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and large parking lot – is likely to