The Border Museum Mödlareuth on the former inner-German border between Thuringia and Bavaria is getting an extension. The renewal and expansion cost a total of 22 million euros, as the Bavarian State Chancellery announced on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone this Thursday. Bavaria and the federal government are each providing 5.6 million euros for the project, and the Free State of Thuringia is providing 800,000 euros.
In addition, the Upper Franconia Foundation will contribute four million euros and the Zweckverband – and thus the administrative districts and municipalities behind it – will contribute around six million euros to the financing of the expansion. After the renovation and expansion, the museum should tell the story of the German division and reunification using the example of Mödlareuth, based on the current state of research and digitally supported.
The extension will have 500 square meters of exhibition space for the permanent exhibition and 150 square meters for special exhibitions. This means that twice as much space as before will be available in the future. The outdoor area will also be redesigned. A 90 meter long original border wall, an expanded metal fence of around 600 meters and an observation tower can be seen there.
Bavaria’s Europe Minister Melanie Huml (CSU) said that Mödlareuth was “not just a symbol of division”, it was also becoming “a symbol of unity and freedom”. In addition to Berlin, hardly any other place on the former 1,350-kilometer-long inner-German border is better suited than Mödlareuth for the erection of a memorial site, she said.
Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) called the construction project an important step in keeping alive the memory of the division of Germany and the suffering associated with it. At the place one can become aware that freedom and unity are not a matter of course, but have been hard fought for.
The small village of Mödlareuth in the Thuringian-Bavarian border area was divided between 1945 and 1989 during the Cold War. In 1966, at the behest of the SED leadership, a wall was built in the town, which is why Mödlareuth was also known as “Little Berlin”.