Serious Difficulties in ‘Miniature Berlin’: This Minuscule Settlement Separated in Half by the Cold War Period

An brook so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops called it Small Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own division was torn down, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about commemorating their heritage. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore relatives into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Origins

Starting at its creation in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its men the designation Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the very same pub, going to the very same place of worship and sending their children to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Split

Then came the World War II. As soon as they arrived, the Russians installed wood stakes by the stream. For a year they occupied the whole community, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a while, locals could still cross over, though as limitations increased they were obliged to display ID, even though everyone understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Increase of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could still observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were forbidden. One woman was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “back at you” to a West German resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me accounts including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated much of his professional career developing it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how what length of barrier they desired to preserve. They selected a portion on the western perimeter, near where a local resident succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Installations

2 observation towers are conserved alongside a set of displays illustrating the most dramatic moments in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Farmers required particular approval to care for their produce; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but never the pair, lest they tried to escape. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Context

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but more than double the number persons (well over 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their farms. They nor did they endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Roughly 15k came to visit each year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and sizable parking lot – is expected to