🔗 Share this article

An stream so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a village for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a group of villagers started memorialising their heritage. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Telling the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore families into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

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

Past Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk never stood in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the very same tavern, visiting the same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

After the War Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russians installed timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the entire village, setting up their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a time, villagers could continue to jump across, though as controls tightened they were forced to present ID, even though each person understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Escalation of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The residents could still view each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side signaling and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was added to a GDR intelligence monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a West German resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his occupational time creating it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how what length of structure they wished to preserve. They chose a section on the west perimeter, close to where one of their own managed to get away in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Installations

A pair of observation towers are preserved alongside a set of displays showing the most dramatic dates in the community’s past. As we move, Lebergen lists the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to care for their fields; the partner could work the combine harvester but never the two, lest they sought to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Broader Context

The border between Western Germany and the GDR ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but in excess of double the number persons (well over 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. the director tells me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by avoiding attention and caring for their land. They nor did they endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a type of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand came to see each year, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Modern Developments

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and large vehicle area – is probable to