Big Problems in ‘Miniature Berlin’: This Small Village Divided in Half by the Cold War Era

An stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet divided a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of local people started commemorating their heritage. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Telling the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman split, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Bygone Background

Even at its founding in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the oddity did not stand in the way of the locals socializing in the very same tavern, attending the identical church and placing their young ones to the very same educational institution.

After the War Split

Then came the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they took over the whole hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a building on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a time, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations tightened they were forced to display identification, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The residents could continue to see each other by ascending hills, but on the east side signaling and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police watch list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career building it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how what length of structure they desired to keep. They chose a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where a local resident managed to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was substantially strengthened.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of guard towers are maintained together with a set of displays showing the most significant moments in the village’s past. As we walk, the director lists the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents needed special permission to look after their produce; the partner could use the harvesting machine but not the pair, lest they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Broader Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but more than twice as many people (well over 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They nor did they backed the communist regime nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a type of destination. Approximately 15k visited each year, viewing tools in their hands, to stare – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, store, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is likely to