Serious Problems in ‘Tiny Berlin’: The Tiny Hamlet Split in Half by the Cold War Period

A brook so low you scarcely got your feet wet divided a community for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents started documenting their heritage. The project is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely ready. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Background

Even at its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its men the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the identical inn, visiting the same church and placing their young ones to the same learning center.

Post-War Division

Then came the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russians installed wood stakes by the creek. For a year they took over the complete community, establishing their command in a building on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a time, locals could still cross over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to present ID, despite the fact that each person knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still view each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for responding “likewise” to a West German resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me stories such as these incidents 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 much barrier they wanted to maintain. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian edge, near where one of their own managed to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the boundary was significantly fortified.

Conserved Structures

2 guard towers are preserved together with a set of tableaux showing the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director details the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the frontier. Farmers required specific authorization to tend to their fields; the partner could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, lest they sought to escape. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but in excess of twice as many persons (well over 300) were killed attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. the director reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who accommodated to living in the ambiguous area between a pair of belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their fields. They neither supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. About 15,000 came to visit each year, binoculars in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a television program about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, movie theater and sizable car park – is expected to