Major Difficulties in ‘Little Berlin’: The Tiny Hamlet Divided in Two by the Cold War Period

A creek so shallow you hardly got your feet wet split a village for over four decades. Due to a quirk of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, pastures and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a collection of local people started documenting their past. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Telling the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which tore households asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Background

Right from its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals gathering in the same pub, attending the very same religious building and sending their children to the identical school.

Following WWII Separation

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russians installed wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the complete hamlet, creating their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw across the brook. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to present identity papers, although everyone understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time developing it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they desired to keep. They selected a portion on the western fringe, close to where a local resident was able to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, after which the boundary was substantially strengthened.

Maintained Installations

A pair of observation towers are maintained in addition to a series of exhibits showing the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s history. As we move, Lebergen lists the rules: not a single person could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required special permission to tend to their crops; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances both, lest they sought to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The border between West Germany and the GDR stretched nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but more than two times more individuals (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by avoiding attention and tending to their fields. They did not supported the communist regime nor resisted it, the director states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of destination. Roughly 15k visited each year, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a cafe, boutique, film screening area and large parking lot – is expected to