Major Difficulties in ‘Little Berlin’: This Minuscule Village Divided in Half by the Cold War
An creek so narrow you hardly got your feet wet divided a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Mini Berlin.
Preserving the Past
Months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people began memorialising their history. The project is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual 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 early October, but the display was not completely ready. Telling the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which tore families apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”
“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which tore households apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”
Bygone Background
Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity never stood in the path of the locals drinking in the very same tavern, attending the same place of worship and placing their kids to the very same learning center.
Post-War Separation
Then came the World War II. Immediately after they came, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the complete community, creating their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to pull back back over the creek. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to present ID, even though all knew who they were, and to come back at evening.
Intensification of Boundary Measures
Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could still view each other by ascending hills, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were banned. A local woman was put on a East German secret police surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a West German villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.
Heritage Site Establishment
It was related to me stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his occupational time developing it. Locals were consulted early on about how much wall they wanted to keep. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian edge, near where a villager managed to flee in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the boundary was substantially strengthened.
Maintained Structures
2 watchtowers are maintained together with a set of displays showing the most dramatic events in the village’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the frontier. Farmers needed specific authorization to look after their produce; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.
Larger Background
The frontier between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many people (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director informs me that 95% of attempts to flee did not succeed.
Community Life
Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern explains.
Visitors
For visitors, however, the village became a kind of destination. Roughly 15k came to visit each year, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.
25 years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.
Current Evolutions
The launch of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and large vehicle area – is likely to
