Big Difficulties in ‘Tiny Berlin’: This Small Hamlet Divided in Half by the Cold War Era

An brook so low you scarcely got your feet wet split a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people started memorialising their history. The effort is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an cruel division, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal division, which pulled families into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most famous for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the residents drinking in the identical pub, attending the very same religious building and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

Post-War Division

Then came the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russians erected wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they seized the entire community, creating their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to pull back across the creek. For a period, villagers could continue to jump across, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to present ID, even though everyone knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was constructed, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could continue to view each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was added to a GDR intelligence watch list for replying “likewise” to a West German resident who said her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his occupational time developing it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how how long a section wall they desired to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the west perimeter, near where a local resident succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the border was substantially reinforced.

Preserved Installations

2 watchtowers are conserved together with a set of exhibits illustrating the most dramatic events in the village’s history. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents required particular approval to tend to their produce; the partner could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they tried to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Background

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but more than two times more persons (well over 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director tells me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They did not backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. Roughly 15k came to see every year, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Modern Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, boutique, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is expected to