Serious Problems in ‘Miniature Berlin’: This Small Hamlet Separated in Half by the Cold War Period

A brook so low you hardly got your feet wet separated a community for over four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own division was opened, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of local people set about commemorating their history. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely ready. Telling the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which ripped households apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which pulled families apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most famous for giving all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same inn, going to the very same church and sending their young ones to the identical school.

Following WWII Division

Then came the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they took over the complete hamlet, setting up their control center in a building on the western side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to retreat across the brook. For a period, villagers could still jump across, though as controls increased they were required to display identification, although everyone was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could continue to observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a West German local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told narratives like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life developing it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how much barrier they desired to keep. They selected a section on the western edge, close to where a villager managed to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the border was substantially strengthened.

Maintained Structures

A pair of guard towers are conserved together with a series of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic dates in the community’s chronicle. As we move, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: nobody could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to care for their produce; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, in case they sought to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR stretched nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but more than two times more individuals (well over 300) died attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director tells me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between two political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k came to see annually, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is expected to