🔗 Share this article

A brook so shallow you barely got your ankles wet divided a village for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers set about memorialising their heritage. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which ripped households apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male members the name Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals drinking in the same inn, attending the identical place of worship and placing their kids to the same school.

Post-War Split

Next arrived the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the creek. For a year they occupied the whole hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a building on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to pull back across the creek. For a time, villagers could still cross over, though as controls became stricter they were forced to display identity papers, although all was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Intensification of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The residents could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were banned. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “same to you” to a western local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time creating it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how much barrier they wished to maintain. They selected a portion on the Bavarian edge, near where one of their own was able to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the boundary was heavily reinforced.

Maintained Installations

A pair of watchtowers are conserved in addition to a series of displays illustrating the most significant moments in the hamlet’s history. As we move, the director enumerates the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to look after their crops; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but never the two, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Wider Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but more than twice as many individuals (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director tells me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They did not supported the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of destination. Roughly 15,000 came to visit every year, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up community similar to Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and sizable car park – is expected to