Serious Difficulties in ‘Tiny Berlin’: The Small Settlement Separated in Half by the Cold War Era

An brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a settlement for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Several months after their own division was opened, and before their state had become one in 1990, a group of villagers started documenting their heritage. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel division, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which ripped households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male members the name Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the identical inn, attending the very same religious building and sending their children to the same school.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they took over the whole community, setting up their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to pull back across the creek. For a period, locals could continue to cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to show identity papers, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was erected, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The residents could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was added to a GDR intelligence monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who said her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I heard accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career building it. Locals were asked early on about how how long a section wall they wished to preserve. They selected a section on the west perimeter, close to where one of their own succeeded to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the boundary was heavily fortified.

Preserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are conserved in addition to a series of tableaux illustrating the most significant events in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the border. Farmers needed particular approval to care for their produce; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, lest they sought to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but over double the number people (exceeding 300) died attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. the director reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They neither endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, the director explains.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the settlement became a kind of site of interest. Roughly 15k came to visit every year, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

25 years after unification, the television series, a television program about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Modern Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and big vehicle area – is probable to