Big Problems in ‘Little Berlin’: The Small Village Divided in Two by the Cold War Era
A brook so narrow you hardly got your feet wet divided a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.
Memorialising Historical Events
Several months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents began memorialising their past. The effort is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Speaking to the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman split, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”
“You were bystanders of an brutal split, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”
Historical Background
Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most famous for assigning all its men the designation Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same pub, visiting the same place of worship and placing their kids to the same learning center.
After the War Division
Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops put up wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the entire hamlet, establishing their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to withdraw across the brook. For a while, locals could still hop over, though as controls tightened they were forced to present identification, even though all knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.
Increase of Frontier Restrictions
Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could continue to observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were banned. A female resident was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “back at you” to a western villager who said her “happy new year”.
Museum Establishment
I was told narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how much barrier they desired to preserve. They chose a section on the western perimeter, close to where a local resident was able to get away in the dead of night with a climbing device, subsequently the boundary was significantly strengthened.
Maintained Buildings
A pair of observation towers are preserved in addition to a series of exhibits showing the most significant moments in the hamlet’s history. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the rules: no one could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their produce; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but never both, lest they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.
Broader Context
The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most, but in excess of twice as many people (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.
Village Existence
The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and tending to their fields. They neither backed the communist regime nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.
Interest
For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of destination. Approximately 15k came to see each year, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.
Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.
Current Evolutions
The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and big vehicle area – is likely to