🔗 Share this article

An stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet divided a village for in excess of four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own wall was breached, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers started commemorating their history. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse 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 first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite finished. Addressing the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which tore families into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the residents socializing in the same pub, going to the very same church and sending their young ones to the very same school.

After the War Division

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the entire village, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to retreat back over the creek. For a time, villagers could still jump across, though as controls tightened they were obliged to display identification, although everyone was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by climbing hills, but on the eastern side waving and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police monitoring list for responding “same to you” to a West German resident who wished her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told narratives including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a large part of his working life building it. Locals were polled early on about how what length of structure they desired to maintain. They selected a portion on the western edge, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the boundary was heavily reinforced.

Preserved Buildings

Two watchtowers are conserved together with a set of tableaux showing the most dramatic moments in the community’s past. As we walk, the director enumerates the rules: no one could come within 5km of the border. Farmers needed specific authorization to care for their crops; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but not the two, lest they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Larger Background

The boundary between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the greatest, but in excess of twice as many individuals (more than 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They neither backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. About 15,000 came to see each year, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

25 years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and sizable car park – is probable to