🔗 Share this article

A creek so low you barely got your ankles wet split a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own wall was opened, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a group of local people set about commemorating their history. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely ready. Telling the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which ripped households asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the locals gathering in the very same pub, going to the very same religious building and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

Following WWII Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the whole village, establishing their command in a house on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a time, residents could still cross over, though as controls became stricter they were forced to show identification, despite the fact that each person understood who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still see each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and shouting were prohibited. One woman was put on a Stasi surveillance list for answering “back at you” to a West German villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his occupational time building it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how how long a section wall they wanted to preserve. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian edge, close to where one of their own managed to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, subsequently the border was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Structures

Two observation towers are maintained in addition to a series of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic moments in the village’s past. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents needed special permission to tend to their produce; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, in case they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but in excess of twice as many individuals (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. Approximately 15,000 came to see annually, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Current Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and large vehicle area – is likely to