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An stream so low you barely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people began documenting their heritage. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not completely ready. Speaking to the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were observers of an cruel division, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the identical inn, attending the very same church and placing their kids to the very same school.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the stream. For a year they took over the complete community, setting up their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to pull back back over the stream. For a while, residents could still jump across, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to show identity papers, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could continue to observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. One woman was put on a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a West German villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me stories including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his occupational time building it. Villagers were polled early on about how much barrier they desired to keep. They selected a portion on the western perimeter, close to where a local resident succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of watchtowers are maintained in addition to a series of tableaux depicting the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, the director enumerates the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents needed specific authorization to tend to their crops; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, lest they sought to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Background

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most, but more than twice as many persons (well over 300) were killed trying to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They neither endorsed the communist regime nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a type of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand visited each year, binoculars in hand, to look – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and big parking lot – is probable to