🔗 Share this article

A brook so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet split a village for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, pastures and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Several months after their own wall was opened, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people started memorialising their past. The effort is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Telling the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which tore households apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk never stood in the manner of the locals socializing in the identical inn, visiting the same place of worship and placing their children to the very same school.

Following WWII Separation

Next arrived the World War II. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the brook. For a year they took over the entire village, establishing their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans urged them to pull back back over the creek. For a time, residents could continue to hop over, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to show identity papers, although everyone knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was built, with mines, tank traps and watchtowers. The residents could continue to observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were banned. One woman was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a western local who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were asked early on about how much barrier they wished to preserve. They opted for a portion on the west fringe, adjacent to where a villager managed to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the border was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are conserved together with a collection of tableaux illustrating the most impactful moments in the village’s history. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed special permission to look after their crops; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but never the two, for fear that they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most, but over two times more people (more than 300) were killed attempting to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to see every year, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh curiosity.

Modern Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is probable to