Serious Difficulties in ‘Little Berlin’: This Minuscule Settlement Separated in Two by the Cold War Era

A brook so shallow you barely got your feet wet divided a community for in excess of four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own division was torn down, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of villagers started commemorating their heritage. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite finished. Speaking to the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel split, which tore families apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Past Background

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk never stood in the path of the residents gathering in the identical tavern, attending the identical church and placing their kids to the same learning center.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. As soon as they appeared, the Russians put up wooden posts by the stream. For a year they occupied the complete village, creating their control center in a building on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to pull back to the other side of the brook. For a period, locals could continue to hop over, though as controls became stricter they were forced to display identification, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Controls

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could still view each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were forbidden. One woman was put on a East German secret police watch list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were polled early on about how much wall they wished to keep. They chose a section on the west edge, close to where a villager managed to get away in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the boundary was substantially reinforced.

Preserved Installations

Two observation towers are preserved in addition to a series of exhibits illustrating the most significant moments in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we stroll, Lebergen lists the rules: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents required particular approval to care for their crops; the husband or wife could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, in case they attempted to escape. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Background

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the greatest, but over double the number persons (exceeding 300) died trying to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They did not supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a type of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k came to see every year, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, led to fresh interest.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and large parking lot – is probable to