🔗 Share this article

An stream so low you hardly got your ankles wet separated a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

Months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about memorialising their past. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely finished. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

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

Historical Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for bestowing all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity did not stand in the way of the residents socializing in the same inn, visiting the very same place of worship and sending their children to the identical educational institution.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Russians installed wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the entire hamlet, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw back over the creek. For a while, villagers could continue to hop over, though as limitations became stricter they were required to present identification, even though all knew who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could still see each other by scaling slopes, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were banned. One woman was put on a Stasi surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me accounts including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they desired to keep. They chose a portion on the west fringe, close to where a local resident was able to flee in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Structures

A pair of watchtowers are conserved together with a set of displays illustrating the most significant events in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required special permission to tend to their fields; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but not the pair, lest they sought to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Larger Perspective

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the GDR stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but more than twice as many persons (exceeding 300) died seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of destination. Approximately 15k came to visit annually, binoculars in hand, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a television program about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Modern Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and sizable car park – is expected to