🔗 Share this article

An brook so low you hardly got your ankles wet divided a community for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own division was opened, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people began commemorating their history. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely finished. Addressing the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the oddity never stood in the path of the residents drinking in the same tavern, visiting the very same religious building and placing their kids to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Then came the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the whole village, establishing their command in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a time, villagers could continue to jump across, though as limitations increased they were required to present ID, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to go back at evening.

Escalation of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The residents could continue to see each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police watch list for replying “back at you” to a West German resident who said her “good new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time creating it. Residents were polled early on about how much wall they wished to maintain. They chose a stretch on the western edge, close to where a local resident was able to flee in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Preserved Structures

Two watchtowers are preserved alongside a collection of displays illustrating the most impactful events in the village’s past. As we stroll, Lebergen details the rules: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the border. Farmers needed specific authorization to tend to their crops; the spouse could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances both, lest they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Larger Perspective

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most, but over two times more persons (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They nor did they endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k visited annually, binoculars in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Modern Evolutions

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