🔗 Share this article

A creek so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, fields and stunning scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a group of villagers set about commemorating their heritage. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for giving all its male members the designation Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity never stood in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the same tavern, attending the identical church and placing their kids to the identical school.

After the War Division

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the creek. For a annual period they took over the complete hamlet, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans convinced them to pull back back over the brook. For a period, residents could still cross over, though as controls increased they were obliged to show identity papers, although each person understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could continue to observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and shouting were banned. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “likewise” to a West German resident who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me accounts such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how much wall they wanted to preserve. They opted for a portion on the west perimeter, close to where a villager managed to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the border was heavily reinforced.

Preserved Buildings

Two observation towers are conserved together with a collection of exhibits showing the most impactful events in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen details the rules: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to look after their produce; the partner could operate the agricultural equipment but never the pair, for fear that they sought to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the greatest, but more than twice as many persons (exceeding 300) died seeking to pass over it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. About 15,000 visited every year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Modern Developments

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