Serious Trouble in ‘Miniature Berlin’: This Tiny Hamlet Separated in Two by the Cold War Era

An creek so shallow you barely got your feet wet split a community for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a partition. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own division was torn down, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a group of residents started documenting their history. The effort is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which tore households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Even at its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity never stood in the path of the residents socializing in the identical inn, visiting the same church and sending their kids to the same school.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the complete village, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a period, locals could still cross over, though as controls increased they were obliged to show identification, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Increase of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with mines, tank traps and watchtowers. The villagers could still see each other by ascending slopes, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were forbidden. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for responding “back at you” to a West German local who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how much barrier they wanted to preserve. They chose a portion on the Bavarian edge, near where one of their own managed to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the boundary was heavily fortified.

Conserved Buildings

Two observation towers are conserved alongside a series of tableaux illustrating the most impactful events in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: no one could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to care for their crops; the husband or wife could work the combine harvester but never the pair, lest they sought to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Larger Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the most, but in excess of two times more individuals (more than 300) died trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They nor did they endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, the director states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the village became a kind of site of interest. About 15,000 came to visit annually, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a television program about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Present-Day Developments

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