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A creek so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a community for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

Several months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of villagers began commemorating their history. The project is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely ready. Addressing the locals who experienced the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Bygone Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the residents socializing in the identical pub, visiting the same church and placing their young ones to the identical school.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the complete village, creating their control center in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers convinced them to withdraw across the stream. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as controls increased they were required to display identification, despite the fact that each person knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could continue to view each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side signaling and shouting were banned. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian villager who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I heard stories including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his working life creating it. Locals were polled early on about how how long a section wall they wished to keep. They selected a portion on the Bavarian fringe, near where a local resident was able to flee in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the frontier was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Structures

A pair of watchtowers are preserved together with a collection of tableaux showing the most significant dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, the director lists the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required special permission to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but not the pair, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Broader Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but more than two times more persons (well over 300) were killed trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and tending to their fields. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a type of site of interest. About fifteen thousand came to visit every year, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a made-up village similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Current Changes

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and large car park – is expected to