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Untitled Document, and Bennewitz and Potratz, Zwangsaussiedlungen, 37 Divided Village In 1983, then-US Vice President George H.W. Bush delivered a speech in London. He had just been in West Berlin and spoke about his first visit to the Berlin Wall. Bush then went on to describe another German wall he saw after Berlin: “if anything, that wall was an even greater obscenity than its eponym to the north.” The story of that wall is a fascinating and valuable slice of the history of postwar Europe. That wall had gone up nearly 200 miles southwest of Berlin at the edge of divided Germany, in the tiny, remote farming village of Mödlareuth. For nearly half the twentieth century, the Iron Curtain divided Mödlareuth in two. In this little valley surrounded by forests and fields, the villagers of Mödlareuth found themselves on the literal front-line of the Cold War. The East German state gradually militarized the border through the community while eastern villagers exhibited a range of responses to cope with their changing circumstances, reflective of the variable nature of the Cold War border through Germany: along the Iron Curtain, the size and isolation of the divided place influenced the local character of the division. Jason B. Johnson is Assistant Professor in the Department of History, Trinity University, USA. Routledge Studies in Modern European History For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com 36 Franco-Israeli Relations, 1958–1967 Gadi Heimann 37 (Re)Constructing Communities in Europe, 1918–1968 Senses of Belonging Below, Beyond and Within the Nation-State Edited by Stefan Couperus and Harm Kaal 38 Order and Insecurity in Germany and Turkey Military Cultures of the 1930s Emre Sencer 39 Green Landscapes in the European City, 1750–2010 Edited by Peter Clark, Marjaana Niemi and Catharina Nolin 40 Resistance Heroism and the End of Empire The Life and Times of Madeleine Riffaud Keren Chiaroni 41 The Summer Capitals of Europe, 1814–1919 Marina Soroka 42 German Reunification Unfinished Business Joyce E. Bromley 43 Oil Exploration, Diplomacy, and Security in the Early Cold War The Enemy Underground Roberto Cantoni 44 Divided Village The Cold War in the German Borderlands Jason B. Johnson Divided Village The Cold War in the German Borderlands Jason B. Johnson First published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Jason B. Johnson The right of Jason B. Johnson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-0-415-79377-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-21089-6 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents List of figures vi Acknowledgements vii List of abbreviations ix Introduction: Eerie 1 1 Calamity, 1945–1952 29 2 Elimination, 1952 65 3 Fighting mood, 1952–1960 89 4 Admonition, 1960–1961 119 5 Bleak, 1961–1989 137 6 Ass of the world, 1961–1989 173 Epilogue: Dream 202 Bibliography 215 Index 230 Figures 0.1 Map of Mödlareuth’s location on the Cold War East-West German border. 2 0.2 Map of Mödlareuth’s location in Schleiz and Hof counties. 5 0.3 Divided Mödlareuth from the western side, January 1983. 7 0.4 Map of Schleiz County in the German Democratic Republic. 12 1.1 The border through the village in July 1949, with easterners on the left bank of the Tannbach; by then, this “Border US Zone” had become the border of the new Federal Republic. 50 1.2 Eastern border police checking documents upon crossing in Mödlareuth in July 1949. 51 2.1 The Tannbach today. 73 5.1 Three West German border officers observe as GDR troops work on the wall through the village in 1964. 140 5.2 Western border personnel look on as East German troops build the wall through Mödlareuth in 1966. 143 5.3 US Vice President George H.W. Bush and West German Minister of Defense Manfred Wörner in West Mödlareuth on February 5, 1983. 159 6.1 The wall through Mödlareuth from the west in 1984. 184 7.1 The new border crossing in Mödlareuth on December 9, 1989. 205 7.2 The village’s single maypole today. 208 7.3 Tourists investigate a diorama of divided Mödlareuth at the village museum. 211 7.4 A GDR border marker today, left in a field near Mödlareuth. 211 Acknowledgements This book would not exist without the support, generosity, and kindness of numerous institutions and individuals. Research for this project was supported by a Fulbright Fellowship to Germany, the Northwestern University Department of History, the Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies at Northwestern, the Northwestern Graduate School, the Germanistic Society of America, Trin- ity University’s Department of History, a Trinity Faculty Summer Research Stipend, and Trinity’s Office of Academic Affairs. I am thankful for the enthusiasm, assistance, and responsiveness of Rob Langham and Michael Bourne at Routledge. I am grateful too to the anony- mous reviewers for their helpful suggestions for revision. Early one August morning, I got on a train from Bamberg to Hof with my bike, then pedaled from Hof through the rolling fields and forests of northern Bavaria to a little place called Mödlareuth. From my first moments there, Robert Lebegern, Ingolf Hermann, and Heiko Ultsch showed me great kindness, as did villagers on both sides of the Tannbach. Dieter Kaiser too was an outstanding host in Bayreuth. I could not ask for a better Doktorvater than Peter Hayes. I am deeply grateful for his steadfast support, feedback, counsel, and wisdom. Over the years, he has shown me nothing but great generosity and patience. I am for- tunate to have as a mentor – and role model – such an extraordinary teacher and scholar. Ben Frommer too has shown me remarkable goodwill. From my first day at Northwestern through now, Ben has given me indispensable aid, advice, and encouragement. John Bushnell meticulously read drafts and offered thoughtful suggestions and insights. The staff of the fourteen archives listed in the bibliography were crucial to this project and patiently fulfilled my requests. In particular, Alexander Isnardy of the Kreisarchiv Saale-Orla-Kreis, Katrin Beger and Heike Wee- dermann at the Thüringisches Staatsarchiv in Rudolstadt, and especially Gottfried Kärner at the Gera branch of the BStU were essential to research for this book. I am fortunate to work in a field with extraordinary scholars like Astrid M. Eckert, Sagi Schaefer, and Edith Sheffer. Through their pathbreaking viii Acknowledgements research and marvelous analyses, they have fashioned a new area of schol- arly inquiry. I especially thank Astrid, Sagi, and Edith for their feedback, encouragement, and generosity. I have benefit greatly too from conversations and fellowship with other fellow historians of Germany, including Robert Beachy, Drew Bergerson, David Imhoof, Elizabeth Harrington, Josie McLellan, Leo Schmieding, Katrin Schreiter, Andrew Tompkins, Alice Weinreb, and Ed Westermann. Jürgen Kocka proved a wonderful Betreuer in Berlin. Adam Seipp has shown me great kindness since I came to Texas. John Merriman and Laura Merriman deliver support and cheer. Sophia Metz has been an inspiration for decades, and the Hruz family, especially Jessica and Becky, welcome me as one of their own. My work on this project has been sustained too by the friendships of Stef Bator, Will Cavert, Den- nis Connors, Bettina Hessler, Mariana Karampalas, Lily Johnson, Theresa LaGuardia, Erin-Marie Legacy, Celeste McNamara, Ben Poole, Meghan Roberts, Strother Roberts, Nat Small, Rachel Taylor, Andy Warne, Katie Wegner, and especially Josh Williams, one of the kindest souls I know. I am moreover appreciative to friends and colleagues in San Antonio, especially Mark Brodl, Jeremy Donald, David Gray, Mark Halx, Rachel Johnson, Shirley Lin, Jen Matthews, Laura Navarro, Peter O’Brien, Corinne Pache, Kim Phillips, Michael Simons, Curtis Swope, Heather Sullivan, and Angela Tarango. I am proud to be a part of a place as wonderful as Trin- ity University. Trinity students endlessly energize and impress me. Haley Bays and Paul Donohue patiently offer key administrative assistance. In particular, I am especially grateful to the faculty of Trinity University’s History Department. Nicole Marafioti and Aaron Navarro read and gave insightful feedback on this work in progress. Don Clark, Anene Ejikeme, Allan Kownslar, Carey Latimore, David Lesch, Ken Loiselle, Nicole, John McCusker, Aaron, Linda Salvucci, Gina Tam, and Lauren Turek provide a wonderful intellectual home and graciously offer unwavering support and encouragement. The Kreuzberg evenings with Anna Galt, Martin Guentert, and Phil Vena- bles always make my time in Berlin even better. Rick Lutjens has been dear for years. Thomas Walker has been central to my life now for most of it. Charlotte Cahill put up with me talking about a distant German village – and much else – with great patience. Catherine Clinton has shown me incredible benevolence and friendship since the moment she arrived in the patria chica.
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