Major Problems in ‘Little Berlin’: This Small Hamlet Divided in Two by the Cold War Period

A brook so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for more than four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and before their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people began memorialising their history. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely ready. Addressing the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its male members 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 way of the locals gathering in the identical pub, visiting the same place of worship and placing their children to the very same school.

Post-War Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the creek. For a annual period they seized the whole community, establishing their control center in a building on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a while, locals could still jump across, though as limitations increased they were required to present ID, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could continue to observe each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was added to a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “back at you” to a Bavarian local who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his working life developing it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how much structure they wished to keep. They selected a section on the Bavarian edge, near where one of their own was able to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the boundary was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

A pair of guard towers are maintained alongside a series of tableaux showing the most impactful events in the village’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers had to obtain special permission to look after their produce; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but not the pair, in case they tried to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but over twice as many persons (well over 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. About 15,000 came to see each year, optical devices in hand, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and big car park – is likely to