🔗 Share this article

An brook so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a village for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and before their state had become one in 1990, a collection of residents started documenting their past. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the fall of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely ready. Addressing the villagers who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal division, which tore households asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity never stood in the path of the residents drinking in the same tavern, going to the identical place of worship and enrolling their children to the identical learning center.

After the War Split

Next arrived the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the entire village, establishing their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to withdraw across the stream. For a time, residents could still cross over, though as controls became stricter they were required to present identity papers, although all knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by climbing hills, but on the east side waving and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was added to a East German secret police watch list for responding “back at you” to a western villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his working life building it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how much structure they wanted to keep. They opted for a section on the Bavarian fringe, near where one of their own was able to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, subsequently the border was significantly strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of observation towers are preserved in addition to a collection of exhibits illustrating the most dramatic moments in the village’s chronicle. As we move, the director details the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents required particular approval to look after their produce; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but never both, lest they tried to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but more than two times more persons (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between two political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. About 15k came to visit annually, viewing tools in their hands, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and big vehicle area – is likely to