Major Difficulties in ‘Miniature Berlin’: The Minuscule Village Separated in Half by the Cold War Period

A brook so narrow you hardly got your feet wet separated a village for over four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents started memorialising their past. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite finished. Telling the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which tore relatives into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Background

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its men the name Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity never stood in the manner of the locals socializing in the very same inn, attending the very same church and enrolling their kids to the same learning center.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the creek. For a annual period they occupied the whole community, setting up their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans convinced them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a period, locals could still cross over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to show identification, even though each person understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could continue to observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was put on a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a West German resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how much barrier they desired to preserve. They chose a portion on the Bavarian fringe, close to where one of their own succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a climbing device, after which the border was heavily fortified.

Conserved Installations

Two watchtowers are preserved alongside a series of displays showing the most impactful dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required particular approval to tend to their produce; the partner could work the harvesting machine but not the pair, in case they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most, but over twice as many persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between two political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They did not supported the communist regime nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. About fifteen thousand visited every year, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and big car park – is likely to