Major Problems in ‘Little Berlin’: This Tiny Hamlet Divided in Half by the Cold War Era

An brook so narrow you barely got your feet wet split a village for over four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents set about memorialising their past. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Addressing the locals who experienced the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which pulled households asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Background

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the oddity never stood in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same inn, going to the very same religious building and enrolling their children to the same learning center.

Post-War Separation

Then came the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the brook. For a year they occupied the whole community, establishing their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat back over the stream. For a time, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to show identification, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to come back at night.

Increase of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could continue to view each other by ascending hills, but on the eastern side waving and calling out were prohibited. One woman was placed on a East German secret police monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a Bavarian local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Locals were consulted at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they desired to preserve. They selected a stretch on the west perimeter, near where a villager was able to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the boundary was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Structures

Two observation towers are maintained in addition to a collection of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic dates in the village’s past. As we move, the director enumerates the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to tend to their fields; the partner could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, lest they attempted to escape. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most, but in excess of two times more people (well over 300) died attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director reminds me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They nor did they endorsed the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of destination. About 15,000 visited every year, optical devices in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Current Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and big vehicle area – is expected to