Mödlareuth

50.41504444444411.883072222222543Koordinaten: 50 ° 24 ' 54 "N, 11 ° 52' 59" O

Mödlareuth is a village of about 50 inhabitants, which is divided between Bavaria and Thuringia for more than 400 years. For 41 years was the inner German border in the middle of the village.

History

In the 16th century Tannbach flowing through Mödlareuth was defined as the boundary between the Margraviate of Bayreuth and the County of Reuss- Schleiz. In 1810 it became the new border between the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss Younger Line. In the population of these boundaries had for centuries from just a little. There was only one school and only an inn, who were in the Reuss part of Mödlareuth. To the church we went to the neighboring Bavarian Pfarrsdorf Töpen. Furthermore, there was a common Mödlareuther Männergesangverein.

In 1945, Thuringia, to which the former Principality of Reuss belonged since 1920, the Soviet, Bavaria contrast to the American occupation zone. As in 1949, the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany and the Constitution of the German Democratic Republic were adopted, ran through the town, the border between the two German states. The traffic between the two parts of the town was now possible only with permits.

From 1952, the GDR began the inner German border unilaterally provided from the east with barricades to prevent the escape of its citizens in the Federal Republic. Mödlareuth was henceforth in the so-called protective strip of the East German border, and was allowed by German citizens until 1989 not to be entered by GDR citizens outside the restricted area only with special permission. From the perspective of the SED regime, " unreliable " Residents near the border areas were forcibly relocated, so some residents of Mödlareuth. The standing right on the border Upper Mill was demolished after its inhabitants nor the flight had recently succeeded in the Bayern just one step away.

1952 about man-high wooden fence was erected on the GDR side first, which was replaced in 1958 by a barbed wire fence. In 1966, the Berlin Wall was built by the GDR border troops erected a concrete wall similar to how it was in other places right on the border as a barrier wall and modesty panel. Only in 1973, succeeded an East German citizens, the wall at the Lower Mill ( which was afterwards demolished by the GDR border troops ) to overcome and escape into the Federal Republic. Outside of the actual local situation of Mödlareuth passed the GDR border barriers made ​​of a metal mesh fence on which until 1983 also spring guns were mounted.

In the decades of German division was the East German part of the village day and night under the strictest security, while the evolved wall on West German side to a veritable tourist attraction. The American soldiers stationed in the region gave it the nickname Little Berlin ( Germany Little Berlin ).

The political change in the GDR and the opening of the inner-German border on 9 November 1989 led to pressure on the Mödlareuther on 9 December 1989 a border crossing for pedestrians in Mödlareuth could be opened. On 17 June 1990, the Mödlareuther wall was finally demolished by an excavator. A short section has been preserved as a memorial and is now part of the German - German Museum Mödlareuth.

Mödlareuth today

The Thuringian part of the village Mödlareuth now belongs to the city Gefell, the Bavarian part of the municipality Töpen.

In Mödlareuth located since 1994, the open-air museum Mödlareuth the inner-German border. It consists in part of an original piece of the Berlin Wall, which was obtained after reunification as a memorial, partly from a mock barrier, as was typical of the border of the GDR.

Exist Although you can now freely again pass from one half of the village to the other, some differences are, however, remained so - isolated different postal codes and telephone area codes, select the inhabitants and send their children to different - due to the affiliation of the village to two states schools. How to greet in the Thuringian page with good day and on the Bavarian side with Good day.

Movies

• Stop! Here border - On the trail of the inner German border, Documentary, Germany 2005.
• Andreas Kieling: Set in the wild Germany ( 1/5), Documentary, Germany 2009.