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An stream so low you hardly got your ankles wet divided a village for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own division was torn down, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about memorialising their heritage. The effort is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show wasn’t quite finished. Speaking to the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which tore families apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which pulled families apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Bygone Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the path of the locals drinking in the same inn, visiting the same religious building and enrolling their children to the same learning center.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russians put up wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the complete community, creating their headquarters in a building on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to withdraw back over the creek. For a time, locals could still jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to show ID, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were forbidden. A female resident was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they wanted to preserve. They chose a stretch on the western edge, near where a villager succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Buildings

Two guard towers are preserved together with a set of displays illustrating the most dramatic dates in the village’s history. As we move, Lebergen lists the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to care for their crops; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, in case they attempted to flee. Armed guards kept guard.

Wider Background

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of two times more persons (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the grey zone between two political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They neither supported the socialist government nor resisted it, the director states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the village became a type of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to visit each year, binoculars in hand, to gawp – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

25 years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Current Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, cinema room and sizable car park – is probable to