Serious Problems in ‘Little Berlin’: This Minuscule Settlement Divided in Two by the Cold War

A stream so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet split a community for more than four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by pine forests, fields and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents began documenting their history. The project is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely ready. Telling the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which ripped households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which pulled households asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most famous for giving all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the locals gathering in the same inn, attending the same place of worship and sending their kids to the same educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the brook. For a year they seized the entire community, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers persuaded them to retreat across the creek. For a time, villagers could continue to hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to present ID, even though all was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The residents could still observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were forbidden. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his working life developing it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how much barrier they wished to maintain. They selected a section on the Bavarian edge, near where one of their own succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the border was substantially reinforced.

Preserved Structures

2 guard towers are preserved in addition to a set of tableaux showing the most impactful events in the village’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to look after their produce; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, lest they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but in excess of twice as many persons (well over 300) died attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Community Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of destination. Roughly 15,000 came to visit each year, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Modern Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and big parking lot – is expected to