Major Problems in ‘Little Berlin’: This Minuscule Settlement Split in Half by the Cold War Era

A brook so shallow you hardly got your feet wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by pine forests, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people began commemorating their heritage. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel split, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Bygone Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the locals socializing in the identical inn, visiting the same religious building and sending their children to the same educational institution.

After the War Separation

Then came the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Russians put up wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they seized the complete community, establishing their control center in a house on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat to the other side of the brook. For a time, residents could still jump across, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to show identification, despite the fact that each person knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could still view each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side waving and yelling were banned. One woman was placed on a Stasi monitoring list for answering “likewise” to a western resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard accounts such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how what length of barrier they wished to maintain. They selected a section on the western perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own was able to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the border was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Buildings

2 guard towers are conserved alongside a set of tableaux illustrating the most impactful dates in the community’s history. As we stroll, the director enumerates the rules: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to look after their fields; the partner could work the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, lest they sought to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the GDR stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but over twice as many persons (exceeding 300) died trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They neither supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director explains.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a type of pilgrimage. About 15k visited annually, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, the TV show, a television program about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and large vehicle area – is likely to