🔗 Share this article

A creek so low you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a village for in excess of four decades. By an accident of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was marked first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of residents began commemorating their history. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Addressing the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped households apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the locals socializing in the identical inn, attending the very same church and enrolling their young ones to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Russians installed wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the complete hamlet, establishing their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw back over the creek. For a time, locals could continue to hop over, though as limitations tightened they were required to show ID, even though all knew who they were, and to come back at night.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could continue to observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were banned. A female resident was placed on a East German secret police watch list for answering “same to you” to a western resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I heard stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his working life creating it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how much barrier they wanted to keep. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian fringe, near where a local resident succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, subsequently the border was significantly fortified.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of observation towers are maintained together with a collection of exhibits showing the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed particular approval to look after their crops; the partner could operate the combine harvester but not both, in case they attempted to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Background

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but in excess of two times more individuals (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and tending to their land. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor resisted it, the director states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit annually, binoculars in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, store, movie theater and big vehicle area – is expected to