Major Trouble in ‘Miniature Berlin’: This Minuscule Village Separated in Two by the Cold War

A stream so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a community for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers started documenting their history. The work is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Speaking to the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same tavern, going to the identical place of worship and enrolling their children to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces installed wooden posts by the stream. For a year they occupied the complete community, setting up their command in a building on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a time, villagers could continue to cross over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to show identification, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at night.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was erected, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side waving and shouting were forbidden. One woman was put on a Stasi monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his working life developing it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how much wall they wished to maintain. They chose a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was substantially fortified.

Conserved Installations

A pair of observation towers are maintained in addition to a series of tableaux showing the most significant events in the village’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required specific authorization to care for their fields; the partner could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Context

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number persons (well over 300) lost their lives seeking to pass over it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director reminds me that 95 percent of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They nor did they backed the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. Approximately 15k came to see annually, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after unification, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, led to new curiosity.

Present-Day Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and large parking lot – is likely to