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A stream so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a village for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, fields and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents set about commemorating their history. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not entirely prepared. Telling the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which tore families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity never stood in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the same pub, going to the identical religious building and placing their children to the identical learning center.

After the War Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they came, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they took over the whole village, establishing their command in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans persuaded them to retreat across the stream. For a period, villagers could still cross over, though as restrictions increased they were required to show ID, although everyone knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the east side signaling and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was added to a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “back at you” to a Bavarian villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

I heard stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his working life developing it. Villagers were polled in the initial phases about how much wall they wanted to preserve. They chose a section on the Bavarian fringe, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a climbing device, after which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Installations

Two watchtowers are maintained together with a collection of exhibits showing the most impactful dates in the community’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director details the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents needed specific authorization to care for their fields; the partner could operate the agricultural equipment but not the two, in case they tried to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but in excess of twice as many persons (exceeding 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k visited annually, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

25 years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh curiosity.

Modern Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and big car park – is likely to