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A creek so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet split a settlement for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

Several months after their own division was opened, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people began commemorating their heritage. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Telling the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which ripped households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for giving all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the same pub, going to the same church and sending their young ones to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the creek. For a annual period they took over the entire village, establishing their command in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to pull back across the creek. For a time, villagers could continue to jump across, though as controls became stricter they were forced to show identity papers, despite the fact that each person knew who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could continue to see each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police monitoring list for responding “same to you” to a western local who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how much wall they wanted to keep. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where one of their own managed to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Installations

Two guard towers are conserved in addition to a set of displays illustrating the most significant moments in the hamlet’s past. As we move, the director details the rules: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents needed specific authorization to look after their fields; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but not the pair, in case they tried to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but in excess of two times more people (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They neither supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. Roughly 15,000 came to see annually, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a TV series about a made-up village similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Current Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, movie theater and sizable parking lot – is expected to