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An creek so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet split a village for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Several months after their own division was opened, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of villagers started commemorating their heritage. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely ready. Telling the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the quirk never stood in the path of the locals gathering in the very same pub, attending the same place of worship and sending their young ones to the very same school.

After the War Split

Then came the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the creek. For a year they occupied the whole hamlet, establishing their command in a building on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans persuaded them to pull back back over the creek. For a time, locals could still cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to display identification, even though everyone knew who they were, and to come back at night.

Increase of Frontier Controls

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could still see each other by climbing hills, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were forbidden. One woman was put on a East German secret police watch list for answering “back at you” to a western resident who said her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me narratives including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his working life building it. Villagers were polled early on about how how long a section wall they desired to maintain. They chose a portion on the western edge, adjacent to where a local resident managed to get away in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Structures

A pair of watchtowers are conserved together with a set of displays depicting the most significant events in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to care for their produce; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but never the two, in case they sought to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but over twice as many persons (well over 300) died attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. the director reminds me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between two political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their farms. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k visited annually, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a television program about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and large vehicle area – is expected to