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A stream so narrow you barely got your ankles wet divided a community for in excess of four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by pine forests, pastures and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own division was torn down, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of villagers began memorialising their heritage. The project is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely finished. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel split, which pulled relatives asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which pulled families apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the oddity never stood in the path of the locals gathering in the same inn, going to the identical place of worship and placing their kids to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces put up timber poles by the brook. For a year they occupied the entire hamlet, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to pull back back over the creek. For a period, residents could still cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to display identity papers, although each person was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was erected, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The locals could still view each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were prohibited. One woman was added to a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “same to you” to a West German local who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I heard stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how what length of barrier they desired to preserve. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian edge, close to where a villager was able to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the border was significantly fortified.

Preserved Installations

Two guard towers are preserved together with a series of exhibits showing the most significant events in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, Lebergen enumerates the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents needed special permission to tend to their crops; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel kept guard.

Larger Background

The frontier between West Germany and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but over double the number individuals (more than 300) died attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They neither backed the socialist government nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a kind of destination. About 15k came to visit annually, optical devices in their hands, to look – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Modern Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, cinema room and large vehicle area – is likely to