🔗 Share this article

A stream so low you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a village for in excess of four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of residents set about commemorating their past. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Addressing the villagers who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an cruel split, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its men the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the way of the residents socializing in the very same inn, going to the same church and placing their young ones to the identical school.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. As soon as they appeared, the Russians put up wood stakes by the brook. For a year they occupied the entire community, creating their command in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a while, villagers could continue to cross over, though as limitations tightened they were forced to present identity papers, although all knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could continue to view each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and yelling were banned. A female resident was placed on a East German secret police watch list for replying “same to you” to a western local who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his working life creating it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how what length of wall they wished to preserve. They chose a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, after which the border was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Installations

Two observation towers are preserved alongside a set of exhibits depicting the most significant dates in the community’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to tend to their produce; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, lest they tried to escape. Military personnel stood watch.

Larger Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but more than twice as many persons (well over 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that 95% of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They did not backed the socialist government nor fought it, the director states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. Approximately 15,000 came to visit every year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary community like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Current Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and large car park – is expected to