Big Problems in ‘Miniature Berlin’: The Small Settlement Separated in Two by the Cold War Era

A creek so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a village for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a group of local people set about documenting their past. The work is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel division, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its men the name Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the path of the residents socializing in the very same inn, visiting the very same religious building and placing their kids to the identical school.

After the War Separation

Then came the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the complete village, setting up their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to retreat back over the brook. For a while, villagers could still jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to present ID, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Escalation of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The residents could still observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were forbidden. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a West German villager who wished her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his working life building it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how what length of barrier they wished to keep. They opted for a portion on the western edge, close to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was substantially fortified.

Maintained Structures

Two watchtowers are maintained alongside a collection of displays depicting the most impactful events in the community’s chronicle. As we move, the director lists the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required special permission to care for their crops; the partner could use the combine harvester but never the pair, for fear that they attempted to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but in excess of double the number individuals (exceeding 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to residing in the ambiguous area between two political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They did not backed the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of destination. Approximately fifteen thousand visited every year, binoculars in their hands, to gawp – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a television program about a made-up village similar to Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Modern Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and sizable car park – is likely to