🔗 Share this article

A brook so low you barely got your ankles wet split a settlement for more than four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own division was opened, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of residents set about memorialising their history. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped relatives asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage best known for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the locals drinking in the identical pub, attending the very same religious building and enrolling their young ones to the same school.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the stream. For a year they seized the entire hamlet, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans urged them to withdraw across the brook. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as controls increased they were obliged to present identification, even though each person understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Escalation of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with explosives, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could still see each other by ascending hills, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his working life developing it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how much barrier they wanted to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the west fringe, adjacent to where one of their own was able to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Conserved Installations

A pair of watchtowers are maintained alongside a series of displays depicting the most significant dates in the village’s past. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the rules: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed special permission to look after their crops; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but not the pair, in case they tried to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but more than two times more persons (more than 300) died trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their land. They did not supported the socialist government nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. Roughly fifteen thousand came to see every year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Current Changes

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, film screening area and big parking lot – is expected to