🔗 Share this article

A stream so low you barely got your ankles wet split a settlement for over four decades. By an accident of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by evergreen groves, pastures and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own wall was breached, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people began documenting their past. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches 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 exhibition wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the locals who experienced the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an cruel separation, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel division, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Right from its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the identical inn, attending the very same place of worship and sending their kids to the same school.

Following WWII Division

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they came, the Russians put up wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they seized the whole community, creating their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a while, residents could still jump across, though as controls increased they were required to display identification, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could still view each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were banned. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

It was related to me accounts including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Residents were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wanted to preserve. They opted for a portion on the west fringe, close to where a local resident managed to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, after which the border was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Structures

A pair of watchtowers are preserved in addition to a set of tableaux depicting the most dramatic events in the community’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to look after their produce; the partner could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances the two, lest they sought to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the greatest, but more than double the number individuals (well over 300) died trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the grey zone between two political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They neither supported the socialist government nor opposed it, the director states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand came to see annually, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, film screening area and big parking lot – is expected to