Big Trouble in ‘Tiny Berlin’: This Tiny Settlement Split in Two by the Cold War

An brook so shallow you barely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, fields and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of villagers set about documenting their past. The project is about 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 federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely prepared. Speaking to the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which pulled households asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel division, which tore families apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Bygone Context

Even at its establishment in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the residents socializing in the same tavern, attending the same place of worship and enrolling their kids to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Russians installed timber poles by the stream. For a year they seized the whole community, establishing their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to withdraw across the creek. For a period, villagers could continue to jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to show ID, although everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could still view each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a Bavarian local who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were polled early on about how how long a section wall they desired to keep. They selected a section on the western edge, near where a local resident succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Conserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are conserved in addition to a set of exhibits depicting the most impactful dates in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, Lebergen details the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required special permission to tend to their fields; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but never both, in case they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Larger Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but over twice as many people (exceeding 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They did not backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k came to see every year, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, caused fresh interest.

Modern Developments

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, film screening area and sizable car park – is likely to