🔗 Share this article Major Trouble in ‘Tiny Berlin’: The Tiny Village Divided in Half by the Cold War Period A creek so shallow you barely got your ankles wet split a community for over four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Mini Berlin. Memorialising Historical Events Months after their own division was opened, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a group of local people started documenting their past. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Telling the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which pulled households apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.” “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which tore relatives apart and turned local residents into foreigners.” Historical Background Even at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the very same pub, attending the identical church and sending their children to the same school. Following WWII Separation Then came the second world war. As soon as they came, the Russians erected wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they seized the whole hamlet, setting up their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to withdraw back over the creek. For a period, villagers could still cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to show ID, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at night. Escalation of Frontier Restrictions After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could still see each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was added to a Stasi monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “prosperous new year”. Museum Establishment It was related to me stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a large part of his working life developing it. Villagers were asked early on about how how long a section structure they wished to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the western fringe, near where a local resident was able to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the border was significantly strengthened. Preserved Structures 2 guard towers are conserved together with a set of displays depicting the most impactful dates in the community’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required special permission to care for their produce; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but never the two, lest they tried to flee. Military personnel were on duty. Larger Background The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most, but over twice as many people (more than 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee failed. Hamlet Life The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between two political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states. Visitors For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of destination. About 15k came to visit each year, binoculars in possession, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head. 25 years after unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention. Present-Day Evolutions The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and big car park – is expected to