🔗 Share this article

A creek so low you hardly got your ankles wet split a village for more than four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was breached, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers began commemorating their heritage. The effort is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely ready. Telling the residents who experienced the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman split, which tore households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel split, which ripped households into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for assigning all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the quirk never stood in the manner of the residents drinking in the same inn, going to the very same church and enrolling their kids to the same learning center.

After the War Separation

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the entire hamlet, creating their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers convinced them to pull back back over the creek. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were required to display ID, although everyone knew who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was built, with mines, tank traps and watchtowers. The residents could continue to view each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a Stasi watch list for replying “likewise” to a western resident who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

I was told narratives including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his working life building it. Residents were asked early on about how what length of structure they wanted to keep. They opted for a section on the western perimeter, adjacent to where a villager managed to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was significantly fortified.

Conserved Installations

Two guard towers are preserved in addition to a set of tableaux showing the most significant moments in the community’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the border. Farmers required specific authorization to look after their produce; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The border between West Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of double the number persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director informs me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the grey zone between two belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their fields. They did not backed the communist regime nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k came to visit each year, optical devices in hand, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Current Changes

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