Serious Difficulties in ‘Tiny Berlin’: The Small Settlement Split in Two by the Cold War Period
An stream so shallow you barely got your feet wet divided a village for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Small Berlin.
Commemorating Historical Events
Months after their own division was breached, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people began commemorating their history. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely prepared. Addressing the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”
“You were bystanders of an brutal division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”
Bygone Origins
Even at its creation in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the oddity never stood in the manner of the residents drinking in the very same pub, visiting the same place of worship and placing their kids to the very same school.
After the War Division
Next arrived the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russians erected timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the complete village, creating their control center in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to withdraw across the brook. For a time, villagers could still cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to show ID, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.
Increase of Border Measures
Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could still view each other by ascending slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were banned. A female resident was added to a East German secret police watch list for responding “back at you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “good new year”.
Museum Establishment
I heard stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they desired to keep. They chose a portion on the Bavarian fringe, close to where a villager managed to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the border was substantially reinforced.
Preserved Buildings
Two watchtowers are preserved in addition to a series of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic dates in the village’s past. As we walk, Lebergen details the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed particular approval to care for their produce; the partner could use the harvesting machine but never the pair, for fear that they attempted to escape. Military personnel were on duty.
Larger Background
The boundary between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but over twice as many people (exceeding 300) were killed trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.
Hamlet Daily Living
The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their farms. They neither supported the communist regime nor fought it, the director explains.
Visitors
For tourists, however, the settlement became a kind of site of interest. Roughly 15,000 came to visit each year, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.
25 years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused fresh interest.
Current Developments
The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and large car park – is probable to
