Serious Trouble in ‘Miniature Berlin’: This Minuscule Settlement Split in Two by the Cold War

An brook so low you barely got your feet wet divided a village for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, pastures and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their state had become one in 1990, a assembly of local people began commemorating their heritage. The project is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Addressing the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which pulled households apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which pulled families asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the residents socializing in the very same pub, visiting the identical religious building and sending their kids to the identical learning center.

Post-War Division

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they took over the whole hamlet, creating their control center in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to retreat to the other side of the brook. For a time, residents could still cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to present identity papers, although all understood who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The locals could still view each other by climbing elevations, but on the east side signaling and calling out were forbidden. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a western local who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

It was related to me narratives like these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Residents were polled at an early stage about how much structure they desired to keep. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian fringe, close to where a local resident was able to flee in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, subsequently the boundary was substantially strengthened.

Maintained Structures

Two guard towers are conserved together with a collection of displays illustrating the most dramatic moments in the community’s past. As we stroll, the director lists the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Farmers required specific authorization to care for their crops; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but not both, for fear that they attempted to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many individuals (more than 300) died trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They nor did they backed the communist regime nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of site of interest. Roughly 15,000 came to visit each year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed interest.

Present-Day Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and sizable car park – is likely to