Big Problems in ‘Miniature Berlin’: The Minuscule Village Divided in Half by the Cold War

An brook so shallow you barely got your feet wet split a community for in excess of four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Months after their own wall was opened, and before their state had become one in 1990, a collection of local people began memorialising their past. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the collapse 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 first part of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Addressing the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore families apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk never stood in the manner of the residents drinking in the very same tavern, visiting the identical church and placing their children to the very same educational institution.

After the War Split

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the stream. For a year they took over the complete village, creating their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to pull back across the stream. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as controls became stricter they were forced to present ID, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Escalation of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could continue to see each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and shouting were prohibited. One woman was added to a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “same to you” to a western villager who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard narratives including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time building it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how much structure they desired to maintain. They selected a portion on the western edge, close to where one of their own succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the border was substantially fortified.

Preserved Structures

2 watchtowers are preserved in addition to a set of tableaux depicting the most dramatic dates in the village’s chronicle. As we move, Lebergen lists the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to look after their produce; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances both, for fear that they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but over two times more persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. About 15k came to visit every year, binoculars in their hands, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is expected to

Big Problems in ‘Miniature Berlin’: The Minuscule Village Divided in Half by the Cold War

Preserving Historical Events

Bygone Origins

After the War Split

Escalation of Border Controls

Museum Establishment

Preserved Structures

Wider Background

Hamlet Life

Tourism

Present-Day Developments

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