🔗 Share this article Major Difficulties in ‘Tiny Berlin’: The Small Settlement Split in Two by the Cold War An creek so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Mini Berlin. Commemorating History Several months after their own division was torn down, and before their state had become one in 1990, a group of villagers set about memorialising their heritage. The work is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely prepared. Addressing the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which pulled families apart and turned local residents into foreigners.” “You were observers of an brutal split, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.” Past Context Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for assigning all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the same tavern, attending the identical religious building and sending their kids to the same school. Following WWII Split Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the creek. For a year they took over the entire community, establishing their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a period, residents could continue to cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to display ID, even though each person understood who they were, and to go back at night. Intensification of Boundary Measures After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was added to a Stasi monitoring list for answering “back at you” to a West German resident who greeted her “happy new year”. Heritage Site Development It was related to me stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his working life developing it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wished to keep. They selected a stretch on the western perimeter, near where a local resident managed to get away in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the boundary was heavily strengthened. Maintained Structures Two observation towers are conserved together with a set of displays illustrating the most significant moments in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director lists the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the frontier. Farmers required particular approval to care for their fields; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but never the two, for fear that they tried to flee. Military personnel stood watch. Larger Context The border between West Germany and the GDR extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but more than twice as many individuals (well over 300) were killed trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed. Hamlet Daily Living The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They did not backed the socialist government nor resisted it, the director clarifies. Interest For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. Roughly 15k came to visit every year, binoculars in their hands, to stare – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head. 25 years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest. Present-Day Developments The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and big car park – is expected to