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A creek so shallow you barely got your feet wet split a village for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their state had reunified in 1990, a group of local people began commemorating their past. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Speaking to the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped relatives asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the manner of the locals gathering in the same inn, visiting the same place of worship and enrolling their kids to the same learning center.

Following WWII Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces erected timber poles by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the whole village, establishing their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a while, villagers could continue to cross over, though as limitations increased they were obliged to show identity papers, even though each person knew who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could still view each other by climbing elevations, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police watch list for responding “back at you” to a western local who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his professional career creating it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how how long a section structure they wanted to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian edge, near where one of their own succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was substantially fortified.

Preserved Structures

Two observation towers are preserved in addition to a collection of tableaux depicting the most significant moments in the community’s history. As we move, Lebergen details the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Farmers needed special permission to look after their produce; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, lest they attempted to flee. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many individuals (well over 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They neither endorsed the communist regime nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of destination. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit each year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a television program about a imaginary community resembling Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Current Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, film screening area and large vehicle area – is likely to