🔗 Share this article

An brook so low you hardly got your feet wet separated a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, meadows and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own wall was opened, and even before their country had unified again in 1990, a group of villagers began documenting their history. The project is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely prepared. Speaking to the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped relatives asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Background

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity did not stand in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the same pub, attending the identical religious building and placing their young ones to the same learning center.

Post-War Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians put up wood stakes by the creek. For a annual period they took over the complete village, establishing their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to withdraw back over the stream. For a while, villagers could continue to jump across, though as controls increased they were required to display identification, even though all knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by climbing hills, but on the east side signaling and calling out were banned. A local woman was added to a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “likewise” to a western local who wished her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his working life building it. Residents were asked early on about how what length of barrier they wanted to maintain. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, near where one of their own was able to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the boundary was heavily fortified.

Maintained Installations

Two watchtowers are maintained in addition to a collection of exhibits illustrating the most impactful moments in the village’s past. As we move, the director enumerates the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to look after their produce; the partner could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, in case they tried to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but over twice as many individuals (more than 300) lost their lives seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit each year, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, movie theater and big car park – is probable to