🔗 Share this article

A brook so narrow you barely got your ankles wet divided a village for over four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by pine forests, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own division was breached, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of residents set about commemorating their past. The project is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

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

Historical Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house best known for giving all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the same tavern, visiting the same religious building and sending their kids to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Split

Then came the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the entire village, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the brook. For a time, residents could continue to cross over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to display identity papers, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with mines, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still view each other by scaling slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “likewise” to a western resident who said her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career developing it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how what length of structure they desired to maintain. They opted for a section on the west perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, subsequently the boundary was substantially reinforced.

Preserved Installations

Two guard towers are maintained alongside a series of exhibits showing the most significant moments in the community’s history. As we walk, Lebergen details the rules: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to tend to their produce; the spouse could use the combine harvester but never both, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the GDR stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but over double the number people (more than 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. the director reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They neither supported the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. About 15,000 came to see each year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

25 years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh curiosity.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, film screening area and big vehicle area – is expected to