Serious Problems in ‘Tiny Berlin’: This Tiny Hamlet Split in Half by the Cold War Era

An brook so low you barely got your feet wet divided a village for in excess of four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of villagers started commemorating their heritage. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show wasn’t quite finished. Addressing the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman split, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the identical inn, going to the very same place of worship and sending their children to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Then came the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces put up timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the entire community, setting up their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a period, locals could continue to hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were required to display identification, although all was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and shouting were banned. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a western villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career creating it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how much barrier they wanted to preserve. They chose a stretch on the western edge, adjacent to where a villager was able to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, subsequently the boundary was substantially fortified.

Conserved Installations

2 guard towers are conserved alongside a set of exhibits depicting the most significant events in the village’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required special permission to tend to their crops; the husband or wife could work the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, lest they tried to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but in excess of double the number people (well over 300) died trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand visited each year, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Present-Day Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and large parking lot – is likely to