Serious Problems in ‘Little Berlin’: This Tiny Settlement Divided in Half by the Cold War Period

An stream so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a community for over four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

Several months after their own division was breached, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a collection of villagers started memorialising their past. The effort is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Addressing the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the village straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family best known for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals gathering in the identical pub, going to the very same place of worship and placing their children to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops put up wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the complete community, establishing their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to pull back back over the creek. For a while, residents could continue to cross over, though as limitations tightened they were required to display identity papers, even though each person was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could still observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side waving and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “same to you” to a western resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard narratives such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his working life building it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they wished to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian fringe, close to where a villager was able to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, subsequently the border was substantially reinforced.

Preserved Structures

2 watchtowers are maintained together with a set of displays showing the most significant events in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we stroll, Lebergen enumerates the rules: not a single person could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but never both, for fear that they attempted to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Background

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number persons (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between a pair of belief systems by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They neither endorsed the communist regime nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k came to see annually, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a television program about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh curiosity.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and sizable parking lot – is expected to