🔗 Share this article

An stream so low you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by pine forests, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

Months after their own wall was opened, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of local people began commemorating their past. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Telling the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal split, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Historical Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the identical pub, attending the same church and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

Post-War Separation

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they came, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they seized the entire village, establishing their command in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to withdraw across the creek. For a while, residents could continue to hop over, though as limitations tightened they were forced to display ID, even though each person understood who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Border Measures

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The locals could still view each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. One woman was added to a Stasi watch list for answering “likewise” to a western villager who said her “good new year”.

Museum Development

I was told narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time building it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how what length of wall they wanted to preserve. They chose a section on the Bavarian edge, close to where a villager succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the boundary was substantially fortified.

Conserved Installations

2 guard towers are conserved alongside a set of exhibits depicting the most significant dates in the community’s past. As we walk, the director details the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Farmers had to obtain particular approval to look after their fields; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but never the pair, for fear that they attempted to escape. Military personnel stood watch.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but over two times more persons (more than 300) lost their lives seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and tending to their land. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, the director explains.

Interest

For tourists, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. About 15,000 came to visit each year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Current Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, movie theater and large car park – is expected to