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A stream so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers began memorialising their history. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely prepared. Telling the villagers who experienced the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel division, which tore families apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals gathering in the same pub, visiting the identical church and placing their children to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the World War II. The moment they came, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the stream. For a year they took over the complete community, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to retreat across the creek. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as limitations increased they were required to show identification, despite the fact that everyone knew who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could continue to observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. One woman was put on a East German secret police surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a West German villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I heard stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his working life developing it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how much wall they wished to maintain. They chose a section on the western fringe, near where a villager was able to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the boundary was substantially fortified.

Preserved Buildings

Two watchtowers are maintained together with a series of displays illustrating the most significant dates in the community’s past. As we stroll, the director lists the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to look after their crops; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but never the two, lest they attempted to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Perspective

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 recalled and memorialised the most, but over double the number people (more than 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the metropolis. the director tells me that 95% of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the grey zone between two belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their farms. They nor did they backed the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. Approximately fifteen thousand visited annually, optical devices in hand, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a television program about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is probable to