🔗 Share this article

A stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet divided a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own wall was breached, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers began commemorating their heritage. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel separation, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped households apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its men the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the same pub, attending the same place of worship and sending their young ones to the same educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they seized the complete hamlet, creating their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a time, residents could still hop over, though as controls increased they were obliged to display identification, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how what length of wall they wanted to maintain. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own managed to flee in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was substantially reinforced.

Preserved Structures

A pair of guard towers are maintained together with a collection of displays illustrating the most impactful moments in the village’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern lists the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but not both, lest they sought to flee. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Context

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most, but more than double the number persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They neither backed the socialist government nor fought it, the director states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of pilgrimage. About 15k visited each year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a television program about a made-up community similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Present-Day Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and large vehicle area – is probable to