Major Trouble in ‘Little Berlin’: The Small Village Split in Half by the Cold War Period
A creek so narrow you barely got your feet wet separated a community for over four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.
Preserving History
A few months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their country had unified again in 1990, a group of residents began memorialising their history. The project is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite ready. Addressing the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”
“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped families apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”
Historical Background
Even at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the same pub, attending the very same place of worship and placing their kids to the identical learning center.
After the War Separation
Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the whole community, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to pull back back over the stream. For a time, residents could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were required to display identification, although all knew who they were, and to come back at evening.
Increase of Boundary Restrictions
Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and watchtowers. The residents could still observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the east side waving and yelling were banned. One woman was placed on a East German secret police watch list for answering “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.
Exhibition Center Creation
I heard stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his professional career creating it. Locals were asked early on about how much structure they desired to preserve. They selected a stretch on the west fringe, adjacent to where one of their own managed to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was substantially fortified.
Conserved Installations
Two guard towers are preserved together with a collection of displays depicting the most impactful events in the community’s chronicle. As we walk, the director details the regulations: 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 use the combine harvester but never the pair, in case they tried to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.
Wider Context
The frontier between West Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400 kilometers, 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 double the number individuals (well over 300) were killed trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.
Community Existence
Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their land. They neither supported the East German authorities nor fought it, the director explains.
Tourism
For tourists, however, the settlement became a type of pilgrimage. About 15k came to visit each year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.
25 years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh curiosity.
Current Developments
The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and big car park – is expected to
