Major Trouble in ‘Miniature Berlin’: The Minuscule Hamlet Divided in Two by the Cold War Period

An brook so shallow you hardly got your feet wet divided a settlement for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by pine forests, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people started commemorating their history. The project is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which tore families asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which ripped households apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the path of the locals drinking in the very same inn, attending the very same religious building and enrolling their kids to the identical educational institution.

After the War Separation

Then came the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Russians installed wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the complete hamlet, creating their command in a house on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a time, villagers could still cross over, though as limitations increased they were required to present ID, despite the fact that everyone understood who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Boundary Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side signaling and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was added to a GDR intelligence monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a western local who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I heard stories including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of structure they wished to preserve. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

2 guard towers are preserved together with a collection of exhibits showing the most dramatic moments in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: nobody could approach 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to look after their produce; the husband or wife could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances the two, in case they tried to escape. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Context

The border between Western Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but more than twice as many persons (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95% of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and tending to their land. They did not backed the socialist government nor resisted it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to see annually, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and sizable car park – is expected to