🔗 Share this article

A stream so shallow you hardly got your feet wet divided a settlement for more than four decades. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own division was opened, and before their state had become one in 1990, a assembly of villagers began memorialising their heritage. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not entirely ready. Speaking to the villagers who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which pulled households apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Even at its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for bestowing all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the path of the residents drinking in the very same inn, attending the identical religious building and sending their young ones to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they came, the Russian troops installed wood stakes by the creek. For a year they occupied the whole hamlet, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a while, locals could still cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to display ID, even though all knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was constructed, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could continue to view each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was put on a East German secret police surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Development

I heard stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his professional career developing it. Locals were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they wished to keep. They opted for a section on the western fringe, near where a local resident succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Installations

A pair of observation towers are preserved in addition to a series of displays depicting the most dramatic moments in the community’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern enumerates the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Farmers required specific authorization to look after their fields; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, in case they sought to escape. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Context

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but over double the number individuals (well over 300) were killed trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. the director tells me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and caring for their farms. They nor did they backed the socialist government nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k visited each year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Modern Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, movie theater and sizable car park – is expected to