🔗 Share this article

A creek so low you barely got your feet wet divided a community for over four decades of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of residents set about memorialising their history. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite finished. Telling the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel split, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which tore households apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Background

Right from its founding in 1810, the community cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most famous for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk never stood in the way of the locals gathering in the identical tavern, attending the very same religious building and placing their kids to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians installed timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the complete community, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a period, residents could continue to jump across, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to display ID, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time creating it. Locals were consulted early on about how how long a section structure they wished to preserve. They selected a section on the western fringe, adjacent to where a local resident managed to get away in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Conserved Installations

2 guard towers are maintained together with a set of displays illustrating the most significant dates in the community’s chronicle. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents needed particular approval to look after their crops; the partner could work the harvesting machine but never the pair, for fear that they sought to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Larger Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the greatest, but in excess of twice as many people (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They nor did they backed the communist regime nor resisted it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to see annually, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Present-Day Evolutions

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and big parking lot – is probable to