Serious Problems in ‘Little Berlin’: The Minuscule Hamlet Split in Two by the Cold War

An stream so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops called it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was breached, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers began commemorating their heritage. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely finished. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which tore households asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which tore families asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the identical tavern, going to the same place of worship and enrolling their kids to the very same school.

After the War Separation

Then came the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the creek. For a year they occupied the whole community, setting up their command in a building on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to retreat back over the stream. For a period, locals could continue to cross over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to show identification, even though each person understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The residents could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a East German secret police surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a western local who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I heard stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his professional career building it. Residents were consulted early on about how how long a section structure they desired to keep. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian edge, close to where a local resident was able to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Installations

A pair of guard towers are conserved alongside a set of exhibits depicting the most impactful events in the village’s chronicle. As we move, the director enumerates the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Farmers required particular approval to care for their crops; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but not the two, lest they sought to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but in excess of two times more people (well over 300) were killed attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of efforts to cross failed.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They did not backed the communist regime nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. About 15,000 visited annually, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a imaginary hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Modern Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and sizable car park – is likely to