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A creek so shallow you hardly got your feet wet divided a village for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers started commemorating their past. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely ready. Telling the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for giving all its male members the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the locals gathering in the very same pub, going to the very same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

After the War Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the entire community, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to pull back across the creek. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as controls increased they were forced to present identity papers, despite the fact that everyone knew who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Boundary Measures

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with explosives, tank traps and watchtowers. The villagers could continue to observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were banned. A local woman was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian local who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life developing it. Residents were polled early on about how how long a section wall they wished to maintain. They opted for a section on the west perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own was able to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Installations

A pair of watchtowers are conserved in addition to a series of exhibits illustrating the most impactful dates in the hamlet’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required particular approval to look after their fields; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but never both, for fear that they sought to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of twice as many persons (more than 300) died attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to residing in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They nor did they endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, the director states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand visited every year, binoculars in their hands, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is probable to