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A brook so narrow you barely got your feet wet split a settlement for over four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, pastures and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own wall was opened, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a collection of residents set about documenting their history. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely finished. Telling the villagers who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel separation, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped households apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for bestowing all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk never stood in the path of the locals drinking in the very same inn, going to the same place of worship and enrolling their children to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Split

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Russian troops installed timber poles by the brook. For a twelve months they took over the complete community, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to withdraw back over the stream. For a time, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to show ID, despite the fact that each person understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side waving and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life developing it. Residents were asked early on about how what length of wall they desired to keep. They selected a portion on the west fringe, near where a local resident succeeded to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

2 guard towers are conserved alongside a series of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, the director lists the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents required specific authorization to look after their produce; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but never the pair, in case they attempted to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The border between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most frequently, but more than double the number persons (more than 300) were killed trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director tells me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between two political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They nor did they endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to see each year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American 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 made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and large vehicle area – is probable to