🔗 Share this article

An creek so shallow you barely got your feet wet separated a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a partition. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Months after their own division was torn down, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people set about documenting their history. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Telling the residents who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel split, which pulled families apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Past Origins

Starting at its creation in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity never stood in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the very same pub, visiting the identical religious building and sending their young ones to the identical learning center.

Post-War Split

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians installed timber poles by the creek. For a annual period they took over the complete village, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a while, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were required to display ID, although each person was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The locals could still view each other by ascending hills, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a West German villager who wished her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his working life building it. Residents were polled early on about how much barrier they desired to preserve. They chose a portion on the west fringe, near where one of their own managed to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was heavily fortified.

Maintained Buildings

2 guard towers are preserved together with a set of exhibits illustrating the most impactful events in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, the director enumerates the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to care for their crops; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but never both, lest they tried to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Context

The border between West Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but over double the number people (well over 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the grey zone between a pair of belief systems by avoiding attention and caring for their land. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to visit each year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, movie theater and large vehicle area – is probable to