Big Trouble in ‘Tiny Berlin’: The Tiny Hamlet Split in Two by the Cold War

A stream so low you barely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by pine forests, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own wall was breached, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people started documenting their heritage. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an cruel separation, which tore households apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an cruel division, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Background

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals socializing in the very same tavern, visiting the very same religious building and placing their young ones to the identical school.

Post-War Division

Then came the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces erected timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the whole community, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw across the brook. For a while, villagers could still hop over, though as limitations became stricter they were required to show ID, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Border Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could continue to see each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told accounts including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his professional career developing it. Residents were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of wall they wanted to preserve. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian fringe, near where a local resident succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was heavily fortified.

Conserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are maintained in addition to a collection of tableaux depicting the most dramatic dates in the community’s history. As we walk, Lebergen lists the regulations: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents needed specific authorization to care for their crops; the husband or wife could operate the combine harvester but never the pair, lest they attempted to escape. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most frequently, but over double the number persons (more than 300) died attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their land. They neither backed the communist regime nor resisted it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of destination. Approximately 15k visited every year, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Modern Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, boutique, cinema room and sizable car park – is probable to