🔗 Share this article

A creek so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a settlement for over four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own division was opened, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about commemorating their history. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Telling the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the locals socializing in the same pub, visiting the identical place of worship and sending their kids to the very same learning center.

After the War Split

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they took over the whole hamlet, creating their command in a building on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to pull back across the brook. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to display identification, although each person was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Border Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could still view each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side signaling and shouting were prohibited. One woman was added to a Stasi watch list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his working life creating it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how what length of structure they desired to keep. They chose a stretch on the west fringe, adjacent to where one of their own managed to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Structures

Two guard towers are preserved together with a collection of displays depicting the most dramatic moments in the community’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to care for their produce; the husband or wife could work the harvesting machine but not both, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most frequently, but more than two times more people (more than 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director tells me that 95% of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They did not backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. Approximately 15k visited annually, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Current Evolutions

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and large parking lot – is probable to