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

A creek so shallow you barely got your ankles wet separated a village for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Months after their own wall was torn down, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of residents began commemorating their past. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely ready. Telling the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Background

Right from its founding in 1810, the village straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house best known for assigning all its men the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity never stood in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the identical tavern, attending the identical church and sending their children to the same learning center.

Post-War Split

Then came the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the stream. For a year they seized the whole hamlet, establishing their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a period, villagers could still cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to show identification, even though each person knew who they were, and to come back at night.

Increase of Frontier Measures

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could still see each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a western local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his occupational time creating it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how much wall they desired to keep. They chose a portion on the Bavarian fringe, close to where one of their own was able to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the boundary was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Installations

2 watchtowers are conserved in addition to a collection of exhibits showing the most significant moments in the village’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Farmers required particular approval to care for their crops; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, lest they tried to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Wider Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but over double the number persons (well over 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director reminds me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by avoiding attention and caring for their farms. They neither supported the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k came to see every year, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh curiosity.

Modern Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, cinema room and big car park – is expected to