Big Problems in ‘Little Berlin’: This Small Hamlet Split in Half by the Cold War Period

A stream so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents began documenting their past. The work 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 inaugurate. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which tore families apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the path of the locals socializing in the same tavern, visiting the same place of worship and enrolling their children to the same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Russian troops installed timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the complete village, creating their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a period, locals could still jump across, though as limitations increased they were forced to display ID, although all was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The villagers could still see each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were banned. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for replying “back at you” to a West German villager who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his occupational time building it. Villagers were asked early on about how how long a section wall they wished to keep. They opted for a stretch on the west edge, near where one of their own managed to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the border was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Structures

Two watchtowers are preserved together with a series of tableaux depicting the most dramatic events in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen details the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their fields; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, lest they sought to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but more than two times more persons (well over 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. the director reminds me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They neither backed the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to visit each year, binoculars in hand, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Present-Day Changes

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, film screening area and large car park – is probable to