🔗 Share this article

A stream so low you hardly got your feet wet separated a village for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by pine forests, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

Months after their own division was opened, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers set about documenting their past. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Speaking to the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped households apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the very same tavern, going to the identical church and placing their young ones to the identical educational institution.

Post-War Split

Next arrived the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they took over the entire hamlet, establishing their command in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the brook. For a period, residents could continue to hop over, though as limitations tightened they were forced to present ID, although everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could continue to observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side waving and shouting were prohibited. One woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a western villager who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his professional career developing it. Residents were polled in the initial phases about how much wall they desired to preserve. They chose a section on the west edge, adjacent to where a villager was able to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Structures

A pair of watchtowers are maintained alongside a collection of displays illustrating the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, Lebergen details the rules: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to tend to their fields; the partner could work the combine harvester but never the pair, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Context

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but over two times more people (more than 300) died seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their land. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor opposed it, the director states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit annually, binoculars in their hands, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a television program about a fictional village like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and large parking lot – is expected to