🔗 Share this article

An stream so narrow you barely got your ankles wet split a settlement for more than four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, meadows and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people set about documenting their heritage. The effort is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the residents drinking in the same tavern, going to the identical church and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

After the War Split

Then came the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the brook. For a year they took over the complete village, establishing their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces persuaded them to pull back back over the stream. For a time, villagers could still jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to display identification, although everyone was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The residents could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a western resident who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me narratives like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his professional career creating it. Villagers were consulted early on about how much barrier they wanted to preserve. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where a villager managed to flee in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the border was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Installations

A pair of watchtowers are maintained in addition to a collection of displays illustrating the most significant dates in the community’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern lists the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the border. Farmers needed specific authorization to tend to their crops; the partner could use the harvesting machine but not the two, for fear that they sought to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but over double the number people (more than 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. the director informs me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They did not backed the communist regime nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to visit every year, optical devices in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Modern Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is expected to