🔗 Share this article Serious Problems in ‘Tiny Berlin’: The Minuscule Village Separated in Two by the Cold War Period An stream so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet split a community for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, pastures and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin. Memorialising History A few months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people started memorialising their history. The work is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which pulled families into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.” “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore families into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.” Past Background Even at its founding in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the very same tavern, visiting the same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center. Following WWII Division Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they came, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the creek. For a year they seized the entire village, setting up their command in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw back over the brook. For a period, locals could continue to jump across, though as controls became stricter they were required to show ID, although everyone knew who they were, and to come back at after dark. Increase of Border Restrictions After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with mines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The residents could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side waving and shouting were prohibited. One woman was put on a Stasi monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a West German local who said her “happy new year”. Museum Creation I was told accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a large part of his professional career creating it. Villagers were consulted early on about how much structure they wished to maintain. They chose a stretch on the western perimeter, close to where one of their own was able to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, after which the frontier was significantly strengthened. Conserved Buildings Two guard towers are conserved alongside a series of tableaux showing the most impactful moments in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the border. Farmers needed special permission to look after their crops; the husband or wife could work the combine harvester but not both, lest they attempted to escape. Soldiers kept guard. Broader Perspective The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many individuals (well over 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed. Hamlet Existence The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between two political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They did not backed the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains. Interest For visitors, however, the village became a sort of destination. Roughly 15k visited each year, optical devices in hand, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head. Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a television program about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, led to fresh interest. Modern Developments The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, cinema room and big parking lot – is likely to