🔗 Share this article

An brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet split a village for over four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops called it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own division was torn down, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people started commemorating their past. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely prepared. Speaking to the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the identical inn, attending the same place of worship and placing their kids to the very same educational institution.

After the War Split

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces erected timber poles by the creek. For a year they seized the whole hamlet, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to withdraw across the creek. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as limitations tightened they were required to present ID, although all understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Increase of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could still see each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side signaling and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a West German local who said her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his working life creating it. Locals were asked early on about how much barrier they wished to keep. They selected a portion on the west edge, close to where a local resident was able to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, subsequently the border was heavily fortified.

Preserved Installations

2 guard towers are maintained together with a set of displays showing the most significant dates in the community’s history. As we walk, the director lists the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to care for their fields; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but not the pair, for fear that they sought to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many people (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a type of site of interest. About 15k visited each year, optical devices in hand, to look – and then quickly 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 television program about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and big parking lot – is expected to