Mödlareuth () is a German village situated partly in
Bavaria
Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
and partly in
Thuringia
Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area.
Er ...
. Between 1949 and 1990, the northern part was in
East Germany
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
and the southern part in
West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
.
The Thuringian part of the village belongs to
Gefell while the Bavarian part belongs to
Töpen. It was called "Little Berlin" by the Americans
['Little Berlin' marks 40th anniversary of its own Cold War wall](_blank)
/ref> because a wall divided it until 1989, like the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...
divided Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. "Little Berlin" became a symbol of separation between the West and East by the wall, but also a symbol of reunification.[Springer Akademie, ''Little Berlin'']
What does "Little Berlin" mean?
2009
Today the Museum Mödlareuth shows the history of the village and gives information about the political system at that time.
History
Early history
In the year 1374 the village was mentioned for the first time in a document of the parish church of Gefell (original spelling: Modelotenreut). Mödlareuth shows up in an urbarium of 1502 that registers the fief ownership in the region. However, no further information is available, not even the detailed location is documented.
In 1810 (see Napoleonic Wars
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Napoleonic Wars
, partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
, image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg
, caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
) the Tannbach stream (only around 30 cm; 1' wide), which flows through Mödlareuth, became the new border between the Kingdom of Bavaria and the principality of Reuss Junior Line. For 140 years this border made little difference to the local populace. There was just one school and one restaurant, both on the Reuss side, the villagers went to church in the neighboring Bavarian municipality Töpen.[Springer Akademie]
''Von Modelotenreut zu Mödlareuth''
2009
Cold War
In 1945, Thuringia (to which Reuss had belonged since 1920) became part of the Soviet occupation zone, while Bavaria went to the American occupation zone. When the constitutions of West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
and East Germany
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
were ratified in 1949, the village became divided by the border between two states. A pass was required to cross between the two parts of town.
In 1952, East Germany began to strengthen its western border. Residents of areas close to the border were forced to relocate, including some residents of Mödlareuth. In the case of Mödlareuth a wooden fence almost two metres (6') high was built followed by more complex border fences. After the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...
was built in 1961, walls were built in other towns on the border as well. The wall separating the two halves of Mödlareuth was built in 1966. From that point on, the East German part of the village was strictly monitored day and night, while on the West German side the wall became a kind of tourist attraction. The Americans nicknamed the place ''Little Berlin''.
In 1983, the then U.S. Vice President George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
visited and exclaimed, "Ich bin ein Mödlareuther!", an allusion to John F. Kennedy's " Ich bin ein Berliner" statement. Bush visited Mödlareuth together with the then Defense Minister of West-Germany Manfred Wörner
Manfred Hermann Wörner (24 September 1934 – 13 August 1994) was a German politician and diplomat. He served as the defense minister of West Germany between 1982 and 1988. He then served as the seventh Secretary General of NATO from 1988 to ...
who later became the seventh Secretary General of NATO. Arnold Friedrich, the mayor of Töpen, a nearby village, was also present during the visit.
One month after the fall of the Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall (, ) on 9 November in German history, 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, marked the beginning of the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain, as East Berlin transit restrictions we ...
(November 1989), a pedestrian crossing was opened at Mödlareuth (December 1989). On 17 June 1990, four months before German reunification
German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...
, the Mödlareuth Wall was knocked down using a bulldozer. A portion has been retained as a memorial and is part of the museum in the village.
Mödlareuth today
The Thuringian part of the village of Mödlareuth belongs to the town of Gefell, and the Bavarian part to the community of Töpen.
Since 1994, Mödlareuth has had an open-air museum about the border between East and West Germany. It includes a portion of the original wall as well as a rebuilt barrier typical of those on the border at the time.
Although there is free passage between the two parts of the village today, there are still many differences. They have different postal codes and telephone area codes; the residents vote separately and send their children to different schools.
Gallery
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-N0415-363, Mödlareuth, Zonengrenze.jpg, The Mödlareuth border in 1949
File:Infotafel Mödlareuth 20201003 DSC4717.jpg, The Mödlareuth border in 1989
File:Freilichtmuseum Moedlareuth (2019) IMG 1349.jpg, Open-air museum
File:Mödlareuth wall corrected.jpg, Mödlareuth Wall
File:US Vice President visits "Little Berlin".jpg, US Vice President George Bush visits "Little Berlin" on 5 February 1983. Left: Arnold Friedrich. Middle: George H.W. Bush. Right: Manfred Wörner.
Films
* '' Sky Without Stars''. Germany 1955. Directed by Helmut Käutner
Helmut Käutner (25 March 1908 – 20 April 1980) was a German film director active mainly in the 1940s and 1950s. He entered the film industry at the end of the Weimar Republic and released his first films as a director in Nazi Germany. Käu ...
.
* ''Halt! Hier Grenze - Auf den Spuren der innerdeutschen Grenze.'' Documentary Film, Germany 2005.
* ''Mitten im wilden Deutschland''. Andreas Kieling, Documentary Film, Germany 2009.
* '' Tannbach I – Schicksal eines Dorfes''. History Film, Germany/Czech Republic 2014. Directed by Alexander Dierbach. First performance ZDF 4, 5 and 7 January 2015.
* ''Tannbach – Die Dokumentation.'' Documentary Film, Germany 2014. First performance ZDF 4 January 2015.
* ''Tannbach II''. History-Film, Germany/Czech Republic 2017, Directed by Alexander Dierbach. First performance ZDF 8, 10 and 11 January 2018.
* ''World War III'', a ZDF mockumentary directed by Robert Stone and narrated by David McCallum of an alternate history in which Gorbachev is deposed and his successor Soshkin blocks access to West Berlin.
See also
* Inner German border
The inner German border ( or ''deutsch–deutsche Grenze''; initially also , zonal boundary) was the frontier between the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the West Germany, Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West ...
References
Sources
* Jason Johnson: ''Divided Village: The Cold War in the German Borderlands.'' New York, Routledge, 2017.
* Wolfgang Kahl: ''Ersterwähnung Thüringer Städte und Dörfer. Ein Handbuch''. Rockstuhl, Bad-Langensalza 2010, .
* Ludger Stühlmeyer: ''Curia sonans. Die Musikgeschichte der Stadt Hof. Eine Studie zur Kultur Oberfrankens von der Gründung des Bistums Bamberg bis zur Gegenwart''. Heinrichsverlag, Bamberg 2010, (phil. dissertation, Münster 2010).
External links
*
Mödlareuth official website
*
*
Photo Gallery
by Enrico Martino
{{DEFAULTSORT:Modlareuth
Villages in Bavaria
Villages in Thuringia
Open-air museums in Germany
Inner German border
Museums in Bavaria
Museums in Thuringia
Cold War museums in Germany
Hof (district)