🔗 Share this article

An stream so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a community for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving the Past

A few months after their own division was opened, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people set about commemorating their heritage. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely prepared. Addressing the villagers who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the locals gathering in the identical pub, visiting the identical church and sending their kids to the very same learning center.

Post-War Separation

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the creek. For a year they seized the entire hamlet, setting up their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a time, residents could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were required to present ID, although everyone was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could continue to observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “back at you” to a West German local who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his working life building it. Locals were consulted at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they wished to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the west fringe, near where a local resident was able to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the border was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Installations

Two watchtowers are preserved alongside a set of tableaux illustrating the most significant events in the village’s history. As we walk, Lebergen details the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the border. Farmers had to obtain special permission to tend to their fields; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the greatest, but over double the number persons (more than 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to residing in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and tending to their fields. They did not supported the communist regime nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the village became a kind of destination. Approximately 15,000 came to see annually, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Modern Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and large car park – is expected to