🔗 Share this article

A creek so low you hardly got your feet wet divided a community for in excess of four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by evergreen groves, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a group of local people started commemorating their history. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Speaking to the locals who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which tore households apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an cruel division, which pulled households apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Background

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most famous for giving all its men the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the residents drinking in the identical tavern, visiting the identical church and placing their young ones to the same learning center.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they took over the entire hamlet, creating their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to retreat across the stream. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were required to display identification, even though each person understood who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The residents could continue to view each other by climbing hills, but on the east side waving and yelling were banned. One woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for answering “back at you” to a Bavarian local who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a large part of his working life creating it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how how long a section structure they wished to maintain. They chose a section on the western perimeter, close to where one of their own managed to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the border was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Installations

2 watchtowers are conserved in addition to a set of displays illustrating the most dramatic events in the village’s past. As we move, the director enumerates the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required particular approval to care for their fields; the spouse could use the agricultural equipment but never both, in case they attempted to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Wider Background

The border between West Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most, but in excess of double the number persons (exceeding 300) died seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by avoiding attention and caring for their farms. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Approximately 15k came to see every year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Current Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and sizable parking lot – is probable to