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An stream so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by evergreen groves, meadows and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of residents started commemorating their past. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Speaking to the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore households apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

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

Past Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the locals gathering in the very same pub, going to the same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the same school.

Post-War Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians put up timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they took over the whole community, creating their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw back over the stream. For a time, villagers could still cross over, though as controls became stricter they were required to display identification, although all knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could continue to view each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were banned. One woman was put on a East German secret police surveillance list for answering “back at you” to a West German villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me narratives such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how how long a section wall they wanted to maintain. They selected a portion on the western perimeter, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, subsequently the border was heavily reinforced.

Maintained Installations

Two observation towers are maintained in addition to a collection of exhibits showing the most dramatic moments in the village’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed special permission to look after their produce; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Background

The border between Western Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but more than twice as many people (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. the director tells me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to living in the uncertain territory between two political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their land. They did not backed the communist regime nor resisted it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to visit annually, binoculars in possession, to look – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a television program about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed interest.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and large parking lot – is likely to