Big Trouble in ‘Tiny Berlin’: The Small Settlement Divided in Two by the Cold War Era

An brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

Several months after their own division was breached, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people began documenting their heritage. The effort is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely ready. Telling the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which pulled families apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the quirk did not stand in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the very same pub, visiting the very same place of worship and placing their young ones to the very same school.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces put up timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the entire hamlet, establishing their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to pull back across the creek. For a time, residents could still hop over, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to present identity papers, although all was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Boundary Measures

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with mines, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could continue to observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side signaling and yelling were prohibited. One woman was added to a Stasi surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his working life creating it. Villagers were polled in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they desired to preserve. They opted for a section on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where one of their own managed to escape in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, after which the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Preserved Installations

A pair of guard towers are maintained alongside a set of exhibits showing the most dramatic moments in the village’s past. As we move, the director details the restrictions: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could operate the combine harvester but not the pair, lest they tried to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Larger Background

The boundary between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but in excess of double the number persons (well over 300) died attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Hamlet Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit each year, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Present-Day Changes

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