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A creek so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a village for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, fields and stunning vistas, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people started commemorating their history. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely finished. Addressing the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped households apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which tore families asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Historical Background

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same tavern, attending the same religious building and enrolling their kids to the very same educational institution.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops put up wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they took over the entire community, establishing their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw back over the stream. For a time, locals could still jump across, though as limitations tightened they were required to present identity papers, despite the fact that everyone knew who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could continue to view each other by climbing hills, but on the eastern side signaling and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a West German local who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his working life developing it. Residents were consulted early on about how much structure they wished to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the western edge, adjacent to where a villager was able to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the frontier was substantially fortified.

Preserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are preserved together with a set of exhibits showing the most impactful events in the community’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed specific authorization to look after their crops; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but never the pair, for fear that they sought to flee. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Background

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but in excess of two times more persons (more than 300) were killed attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the ambiguous area between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and tending to their land. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, the director explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand visited every year, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a broadcast production about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and large car park – is expected to