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An brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a village for over four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own division was breached, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a collection of local people started documenting their past. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an cruel division, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel split, which pulled families apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Past Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage best known for giving all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the very same tavern, attending the same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

Following WWII Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they arrived, the Russians put up wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the complete village, establishing their command in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to retreat across the creek. For a time, villagers could still cross over, though as limitations increased they were forced to present identification, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with landmines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still view each other by scaling hills, but on the east side signaling and calling out were banned. A female resident was put on a East German secret police watch list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a large part of his working life creating it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how how long a section wall they desired to keep. They opted for a section on the west perimeter, near where a local resident was able to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the boundary was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

2 guard towers are preserved in addition to a collection of exhibits showing the most impactful moments in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents needed particular approval to look after their fields; the partner could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, lest they attempted to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the greatest, but more than twice as many persons (more than 300) were killed attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and caring for their farms. They did not backed the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a kind of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit annually, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and large car park – is probable to