🔗 Share this article

A creek so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a community for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was opened, and before their country had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people began memorialising their past. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely ready. Addressing the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel division, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal division, which tore families apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most famous for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the identical pub, visiting the same place of worship and sending their kids to the same school.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they came, the Russians erected timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they took over the entire village, setting up their command in a house on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a time, villagers could still jump across, though as controls tightened they were forced to display identity papers, even though each person understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were banned. One woman was put on a Stasi surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a West German local who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I heard stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time building it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how much barrier they wanted to keep. They chose a stretch on the western edge, near where a local resident managed to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the boundary was significantly fortified.

Maintained Installations

2 observation towers are maintained in addition to a set of exhibits depicting the most impactful events in the village’s history. As we stroll, the director lists the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the boundary. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but not the pair, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Background

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the greatest, but more than double the number individuals (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director informs me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their land. They did not backed the communist regime nor resisted it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a type of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k came to visit every year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Current Changes

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