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An brook so narrow you barely got your ankles wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of residents set about commemorating their history. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the residents who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel division, which pulled households into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the oddity did not stand in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the very same pub, attending the identical place of worship and sending their young ones to the very same learning center.

Post-War Division

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the stream. For a year they took over the whole village, creating their control center in a house on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to retreat across the creek. For a while, residents could continue to hop over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to present identification, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could still see each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were forbidden. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “likewise” to a West German villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time building it. Locals were consulted early on about how much wall they wanted to keep. They chose a section on the western edge, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was heavily fortified.

Preserved Buildings

2 guard towers are maintained together with a series of tableaux showing the most dramatic events in the village’s history. As we move, Lebergen lists the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required particular approval to tend to their produce; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but not the two, for fear that they attempted to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Perspective

The border between Western Germany and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but over double the number individuals (more than 300) lost their lives trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director informs me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or artisans, who adapted to dwelling in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They did not supported the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a type of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit annually, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the television series, a television program about a made-up community similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and big parking lot – is likely to