🔗 Share this article

An brook so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for over four decades. By an accident of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a group of local people began memorialising their heritage. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely prepared. Telling the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which tore households asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which tore relatives asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for giving all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the path of the locals socializing in the same inn, attending the same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

Following WWII Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the creek. For a year they took over the whole village, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces persuaded them to retreat across the brook. For a while, residents could still cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to present ID, although all knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could continue to see each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side waving and yelling were banned. A female resident was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a western local who said her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his professional career creating it. Locals were consulted at an early stage about how what length of barrier they wished to keep. They selected a portion on the west fringe, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the border was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Installations

A pair of guard towers are conserved alongside a series of tableaux depicting the most impactful events in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to look after their crops; the partner could operate the combine harvester but never the pair, in case they attempted to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Background

The border between West Germany and the GDR ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but more than two times more persons (more than 300) died seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They did not supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. About 15k visited each year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is expected to