🔗 Share this article

An stream so low you hardly got your ankles wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own division was opened, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents began memorialising their history. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Addressing the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel division, which pulled relatives asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which pulled families apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the identical pub, attending the very same religious building and enrolling their young ones to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Division

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians installed wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the whole village, setting up their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a time, locals could still cross over, though as controls increased they were forced to present identification, even though all understood who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The residents could still view each other by ascending hills, but on the east side waving and yelling were forbidden. A local woman was added to a Stasi watch list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I heard stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his occupational time building it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how much barrier they desired to keep. They opted for a portion on the western fringe, close to where a villager managed to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the border was heavily reinforced.

Maintained Installations

Two observation towers are preserved in addition to a set of exhibits illustrating the most dramatic moments in the village’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the rules: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to care for their fields; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, lest they sought to escape. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Background

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number individuals (more than 300) died attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of pilgrimage. About 15,000 came to visit annually, optical devices in hand, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Current Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is expected to