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An brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a village for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of local people set about memorialising their past. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely ready. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore relatives apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which tore families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the oddity never stood in the manner of the locals gathering in the identical tavern, attending the identical religious building and enrolling their young ones to the same school.

Post-War Split

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the complete community, setting up their headquarters in a house on the western side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a while, locals could continue to jump across, though as restrictions increased they were forced to display identification, although each person understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was erected, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The locals could still observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side signaling and yelling were prohibited. One woman was put on a Stasi watch list for answering “likewise” to a West German local who wished her “happy new year”.

Museum Creation

I was told accounts such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Locals were asked early on about how much barrier they wanted to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where one of their own was able to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

Two guard towers are maintained in addition to a series of displays showing the most impactful moments in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director enumerates the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to look after their produce; the partner could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, for fear that they tried to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number individuals (well over 300) were killed trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a type of pilgrimage. About 15k came to visit every year, binoculars in their hands, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

25 years after unification, the TV show, a television program about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, boutique, film screening area and sizable car park – is likely to