🔗 Share this article

An stream so shallow you barely got your ankles wet split a community for over four decades of time. By an accident of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, fields and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

Several months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a collection of residents set about documenting their past. The effort is close to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal division, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Context

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk never stood in the way of the locals drinking in the identical inn, attending the very same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the very same learning center.

After the War Split

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Russians erected wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they took over the whole community, establishing their control center in a building on the western side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a period, residents could still cross over, though as limitations increased they were required to display identification, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The villagers could continue to see each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for replying “likewise” to a Bavarian villager who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his working life creating it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how much wall they desired to preserve. They selected a portion on the west perimeter, close to where a local resident succeeded to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the border was substantially fortified.

Conserved Installations

A pair of observation towers are preserved together with a series of displays illustrating the most significant events in the village’s past. As we move, the director details the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents needed specific authorization to look after their fields; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but more than twice as many individuals (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to dwelling in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, the director states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately 15,000 visited every year, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a broadcast production about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Modern Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, film screening area and sizable car park – is likely to