🔗 Share this article

A creek so narrow you barely got your ankles wet divided a village for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a partition. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers began commemorating their heritage. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Speaking to the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which ripped households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the locals drinking in the identical tavern, attending the very same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the very same educational institution.

After the War Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they came, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the entire village, setting up their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to withdraw back over the creek. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were required to show ID, even though everyone understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Escalation of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The villagers could continue to see each other by scaling hills, but on the eastern side signaling and shouting were forbidden. One woman was added to a Stasi monitoring list for replying “back at you” to a western resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Residents were consulted early on about how much barrier they wished to keep. They opted for a stretch on the west edge, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Structures

2 watchtowers are maintained together with a set of exhibits illustrating the most significant events in the village’s chronicle. As we move, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required special permission to look after their crops; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but not the two, for fear that they tried to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Context

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany stretched nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but more than twice as many people (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They neither backed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of destination. Approximately 15,000 visited each year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Present-Day Changes

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