🔗 Share this article Serious Trouble in ‘Tiny Berlin’: This Small Village Divided in Half by the Cold War Period An brook so shallow you barely got your ankles wet separated a community for more than four decades. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by pine forests, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin. Preserving History Months after their own division was torn down, and before their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of local people started memorialising their history. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely finished. Speaking to the residents who lived through the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped households into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.” “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which ripped households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.” Bygone Origins Right from its establishment in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most famous for giving all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk never stood in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the same tavern, attending the same place of worship and placing their children to the very same educational institution. After the War Division Then came the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russians installed wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they seized the entire hamlet, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the brook. For a period, villagers could still jump across, though as controls became stricter they were forced to display identification, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to return at evening. Increase of Border Measures Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was erected, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could still see each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were banned. A local woman was added to a Stasi surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”. Heritage Site Development I heard stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time developing it. Locals were consulted early on about how much barrier they wanted to preserve. They opted for a portion on the west perimeter, close to where one of their own was able to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the boundary was significantly reinforced. Preserved Buildings 2 watchtowers are conserved together with a set of tableaux showing the most impactful dates in the village’s history. As we walk, the director enumerates the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents required particular approval to look after their fields; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but never the two, in case they attempted to escape. Armed guards stood watch. Broader Context The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but more than two times more individuals (exceeding 300) died trying to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful. Hamlet Daily Living The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and tending to their land. They neither supported the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states. Tourism For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Roughly 15,000 came to visit each year, binoculars in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head. Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest. Present-Day Changes The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and big vehicle area – is likely to