🔗 Share this article

An stream so shallow you barely got your feet wet divided a village for in excess of four decades. By an accident of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Months after their own division was breached, and before their state had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers set about documenting their heritage. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Addressing the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the residents gathering in the identical inn, visiting the very same church and sending their kids to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Russians installed wood stakes by the creek. For a year they took over the complete community, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to retreat to the other side of the brook. For a time, residents could continue to hop over, though as controls became stricter they were forced to present identification, although each person understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could still see each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side waving and calling out were forbidden. A female resident was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

I was told accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life creating it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they desired to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the west edge, adjacent to where one of their own managed to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, after which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Structures

A pair of guard towers are maintained together with a collection of exhibits showing the most impactful dates in the community’s chronicle. As we move, Lebergen enumerates the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the border. Farmers had to obtain special permission to tend to their crops; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but never the two, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Larger Background

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but over two times more people (well over 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of pilgrimage. About 15k visited every year, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional village like Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and big vehicle area – is probable to