🔗 Share this article

A creek so narrow you barely got your ankles wet split a settlement for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was marked first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers began memorialising their past. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely prepared. Addressing the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal split, which pulled households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the peculiarity did not stand in the way of the residents socializing in the same tavern, attending the same place of worship and enrolling their kids to the very same school.

Following WWII Division

Then came the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russians installed timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they seized the complete village, creating their control center in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to pull back across the stream. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to show identification, although all was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The villagers could still see each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a West German villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me narratives such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time developing it. Residents were asked early on about how much wall they wanted to maintain. They chose a section on the western edge, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the border was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Installations

2 guard towers are maintained alongside a collection of exhibits depicting the most impactful events in the village’s history. As we walk, Lebergen details the rules: no one could approach 5km of the border. Farmers required particular approval to tend to their fields; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but never the pair, lest they attempted to escape. Military personnel stood watch.

Wider Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but in excess of twice as many people (well over 300) were killed trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95% of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They neither backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the settlement became a kind of destination. Roughly 15,000 came to see each year, binoculars in hand, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and sizable parking lot – is probable to