Big Difficulties in ‘Little Berlin’: This Small Settlement Divided in Half by the Cold War Period

An creek so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet split a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a group of local people started memorialising their past. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Telling the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which tore households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for assigning all its men the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals gathering in the same inn, visiting the same church and sending their kids to the very same school.

Following WWII Split

Then came the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces put up timber poles by the stream. For a year they seized the complete hamlet, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat across the brook. For a period, locals could still jump across, though as limitations increased they were required to show identity papers, despite the fact that each person knew who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with mines, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still see each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. A local woman was added to a Stasi monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how much structure they desired to preserve. They opted for a section on the western perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a scaling tool, after which the frontier was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Installations

Two observation towers are preserved together with a series of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic events in the community’s past. As we move, the director details the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed particular approval to care for their fields; the partner could use the combine harvester but never both, lest they attempted to escape. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but more than twice as many persons (exceeding 300) died trying to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between two political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of site of interest. Roughly 15k came to see every year, optical devices in hand, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, cinema room and large car park – is probable to