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An creek so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet split a community for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own division was breached, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of villagers began commemorating their history. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely ready. Speaking to the residents who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

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

Past Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for assigning all its men the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk never stood in the path of the locals gathering in the very same tavern, going to the same religious building and sending their young ones to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the whole community, establishing their headquarters in a building on the western side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a while, locals could still cross over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to present identity papers, despite the fact that everyone understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a western local who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his professional career creating it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how what length of barrier they desired to keep. They selected a section on the western perimeter, close to where a local resident succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of observation towers are maintained alongside a collection of tableaux showing the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the rules: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed specific authorization to care for their crops; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, lest they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Context

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number people (well over 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They did not supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, the director states.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. Approximately 15,000 came to see every year, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary community resembling Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Current Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and large parking lot – is expected to