Major Problems in ‘Miniature Berlin’: The Minuscule Settlement Separated in Two by the Cold War Era

A brook so low you barely got your ankles wet split a community for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own division was opened, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a group of residents set about memorialising their heritage. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely ready. Addressing the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal split, which tore households into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel split, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the residents socializing in the identical tavern, attending the very same church and placing their young ones to the same school.

After the War Division

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they took over the entire hamlet, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat across the creek. For a while, locals could still cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to display identification, although everyone knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could still see each other by scaling slopes, but on the eastern side signaling and calling out were forbidden. A female resident was added to a Stasi surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a West German local who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a large part of his professional career developing it. Locals were asked early on about how what length of wall they desired to maintain. They selected a section on the west fringe, near where one of their own managed to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the frontier was heavily fortified.

Maintained Buildings

Two watchtowers are maintained in addition to a collection of tableaux showing the most impactful moments in the village’s past. As we walk, the director lists the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Farmers needed specific authorization to care for their crops; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but never the pair, in case they tried to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Background

The border between West Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but over twice as many people (more than 300) were killed seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director tells me that 95% of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They neither backed the socialist government nor resisted it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k came to see annually, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary community resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Current Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and sizable car park – is expected to