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

An brook so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a village for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers set about documenting their heritage. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not completely ready. Telling the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which tore families apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the same inn, attending the same religious building and enrolling their young ones to the same school.

Post-War Split

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops installed timber poles by the stream. For a year they took over the whole village, establishing their command in a house on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to pull back across the stream. For a period, residents could continue to jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to display identity papers, although each person knew who they were, and to come back at night.

Escalation of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could still see each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were banned. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police monitoring list for replying “back at you” to a western resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how what length of structure they wished to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the western edge, close to where one of their own managed to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the border was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Structures

2 guard towers are preserved together with a set of displays depicting the most significant dates in the community’s history. As we stroll, the director lists the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents needed special permission to care for their produce; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, lest they sought to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Larger Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but in excess of twice as many people (exceeding 300) died trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor opposed it, the director states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. About 15,000 came to see annually, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is probable to