🔗 Share this article

An creek so narrow you barely got your feet wet split a village for over four decades. By an accident of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents began memorialising their history. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Speaking to the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal split, which tore families apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Background

Even at its founding in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house best known for giving all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the manner of the residents drinking in the identical inn, visiting the identical church and enrolling their children to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Then came the World War II. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the complete village, setting up their command in a building on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to pull back across the creek. For a while, villagers could continue to jump across, though as limitations increased they were obliged to display identification, even though all was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could continue to view each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side signaling and shouting were prohibited. One woman was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for responding “back at you” to a West German resident who said her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me accounts including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Villagers were asked early on about how what length of barrier they wished to keep. They chose a portion on the western fringe, close to where one of their own was able to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Structures

2 guard towers are preserved alongside a series of exhibits illustrating the most significant dates in the hamlet’s history. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required particular approval to care for their fields; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but not both, in case they attempted to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but more than two times more individuals (well over 300) died trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director informs me that 95% of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They did not supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, the director states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Roughly 15,000 came to see each year, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Modern Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, shop, cinema room and large car park – is expected to