🔗 Share this article

An creek so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own division was breached, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people started documenting their heritage. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Speaking to the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal split, which pulled households apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Historical Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its men the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the locals gathering in the very same pub, visiting the same place of worship and placing their young ones to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians installed wood stakes by the creek. For a annual period they took over the whole community, creating their headquarters in a house on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw across the stream. For a while, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations increased they were obliged to show ID, even though all understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could still observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were banned. One woman was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “likewise” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his working life creating it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how how long a section structure they desired to preserve. They chose a stretch on the western perimeter, adjacent to where a villager was able to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the border was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Buildings

Two watchtowers are conserved in addition to a collection of tableaux illustrating the most significant moments in the community’s history. As we stroll, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: nobody could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to care for their produce; the partner could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, in case they sought to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Context

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most, but more than two times more people (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. the director informs me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They nor did they endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. About 15k came to see annually, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Modern Evolutions

The launch of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and large parking lot – is probable to