🔗 Share this article

An brook so shallow you hardly got your feet wet separated a village for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents began commemorating their past. The effort is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Speaking to the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most famous for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same tavern, visiting the same religious building and sending their young ones to the very same educational institution.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they seized the complete hamlet, establishing their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a period, locals could still cross over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to present ID, although everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could still observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a Bavarian local who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time building it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how what length of structure they wanted to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the western edge, near where a local resident was able to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the frontier was substantially fortified.

Preserved Installations

Two watchtowers are maintained together with a collection of tableaux illustrating the most significant dates in the community’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required specific authorization to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, for fear that they sought to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The border between West Germany and the GDR extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but in excess of two times more people (well over 300) died trying to cross it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director informs me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the village became a type of site of interest. About 15,000 came to visit every year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and large parking lot – is probable to