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A stream so low you barely got your ankles wet split a village for over four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own wall was opened, and before their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of local people began documenting their history. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely ready. Telling the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which tore households asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which tore households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for assigning all its men the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the path of the residents drinking in the identical inn, attending the very same church and sending their young ones to the identical learning center.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians erected wood stakes by the stream. For a year they took over the complete village, creating their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat across the stream. For a time, villagers could still hop over, though as limitations increased they were obliged to show ID, although each person understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The villagers could still view each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and calling out were banned. A local woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how much barrier they desired to keep. They selected a portion on the west fringe, close to where a villager was able to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, after which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Structures

A pair of guard towers are preserved together with a collection of tableaux illustrating the most significant moments in the community’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen lists the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to tend to their fields; the husband or wife could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances both, in case they attempted to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but over twice as many individuals (exceeding 300) died seeking to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. the director tells me that 95% of escape attempts failed.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They nor did they endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to visit annually, optical devices in hand, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a television program about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and big car park – is probable to