🔗 Share this article

An creek so low you hardly got your feet wet split a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own wall was breached, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a collection of residents began commemorating their heritage. The work is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely finished. Telling the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel split, which ripped families apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Even at its founding in 1810, the village straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its men the name Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the identical pub, visiting the identical religious building and enrolling their kids to the identical school.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they came, the Russians installed wood stakes by the creek. For a year they took over the complete community, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to retreat back over the creek. For a while, villagers could still hop over, though as limitations became stricter they were required to present ID, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could continue to see each other by ascending slopes, but on the eastern side waving and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a Stasi watch list for responding “likewise” to a West German resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his working life building it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how what length of barrier they desired to keep. They opted for a portion on the western perimeter, close to where a villager was able to get away in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was substantially fortified.

Preserved Installations

A pair of observation towers are conserved alongside a series of exhibits illustrating the most dramatic moments in the community’s history. As we move, the director details the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to look after their fields; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but not the pair, in case they attempted to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Larger Context

The boundary between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number persons (well over 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director reminds me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. About 15k came to see annually, binoculars in hand, to look – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh curiosity.

Modern Changes

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and large car park – is expected to