🔗 Share this article

An creek so low you hardly got your feet wet split a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

A few months after their own division was breached, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a group of residents started documenting their history. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite finished. Addressing the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which pulled households apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore households into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Bygone Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the residents gathering in the very same pub, visiting the very same religious building and sending their young ones to the identical learning center.

After the War Division

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they came, the Russians put up wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they took over the complete hamlet, establishing their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to pull back back over the stream. For a period, residents could continue to hop over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to show identification, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still view each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were prohibited. One woman was put on a Stasi watch list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I heard stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his working life building it. Villagers were consulted early on about how what length of structure they desired to preserve. They selected a stretch on the west fringe, near where one of their own was able to get away in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Installations

2 observation towers are conserved in addition to a series of exhibits showing the most significant events in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director details the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to look after their fields; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but not the pair, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Context

The border between Western Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the most, but over double the number persons (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director reminds me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the grey zone between two political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their land. They nor did they backed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit each year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, boutique, film screening area and large vehicle area – is probable to