🔗 Share this article

An creek so low you hardly got your feet wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, pastures and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Months after their own division was torn down, and before their country had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people set about documenting their heritage. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which tore households asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its men the name Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the very same pub, going to the very same church and placing their children to the same educational institution.

After the War Separation

Then came the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the stream. For a year they occupied the entire village, establishing their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to pull back across the brook. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to show ID, although each person understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was erected, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and calling out were forbidden. One woman was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his working life creating it. Villagers were polled early on about how what length of wall they desired to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the west edge, near where a local resident was able to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of observation towers are conserved in addition to a set of exhibits illustrating the most dramatic moments in the community’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: no one could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to care for their crops; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but never the two, lest they tried to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but over double the number individuals (well over 300) died trying to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. About fifteen thousand came to visit annually, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a TV series about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, cinema room and large parking lot – is probable to