🔗 Share this article

An creek so low you hardly got your feet wet divided a settlement for in excess of four decades of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents set about documenting their heritage. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely ready. Speaking to the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which pulled relatives apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel division, which pulled families into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

Past Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk never stood in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the very same inn, visiting the very same church and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

Post-War Separation

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the entire hamlet, creating their command in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to retreat across the stream. For a while, villagers could continue to hop over, though as controls tightened they were forced to show ID, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “likewise” to a West German villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were polled early on about how much structure they desired to keep. They chose a section on the western perimeter, close to where a villager was able to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Preserved Buildings

Two watchtowers are conserved in addition to a set of tableaux showing the most impactful moments in the community’s history. As we stroll, the director enumerates the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents required particular approval to look after their produce; the partner could use the combine harvester but never the pair, lest they tried to flee. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but more than twice as many people (exceeding 300) died attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. the director informs me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. About 15k came to visit each year, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is likely to