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An brook so narrow you barely got your feet wet split a village for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their state had become one in 1990, a group of local people set about memorialising their heritage. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite finished. Telling the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which ripped families apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the oddity never stood in the manner of the locals gathering in the very same inn, visiting the very same religious building and enrolling their kids to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians installed wooden posts by the stream. For a year they took over the whole community, creating their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to pull back back over the brook. For a period, locals could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were required to show identity papers, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Boundary Measures

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with mines, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still observe each other by climbing hills, but on the east side waving and calling out were forbidden. A female resident was added to a Stasi monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a West German villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his occupational time developing it. Locals were consulted at an early stage about how much barrier they wanted to preserve. They chose a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where one of their own was able to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the border was substantially reinforced.

Preserved Installations

A pair of watchtowers are conserved alongside a set of displays illustrating the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, the director enumerates the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to look after their produce; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but not the pair, in case they tried to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Context

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most frequently, but more than twice as many people (more than 300) were killed seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a type of destination. About fifteen thousand came to see every year, optical devices in hand, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Current Changes

The opening of the new museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is likely to