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An stream so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet split a village for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by pine forests, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

Several months after their own wall was opened, and before their state had become one in 1990, a collection of residents started memorialising their heritage. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely ready. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel split, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

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

Bygone Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the way of the locals drinking in the identical pub, going to the same religious building and sending their kids to the identical learning center.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces put up timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the entire hamlet, setting up their control center in a house on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to pull back back over the brook. For a period, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations increased they were forced to display identification, although all understood who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Boundary Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could still see each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were banned. A local woman was added to a Stasi monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a western resident who said her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his occupational time developing it. Residents were polled at an early stage about how how long a section wall they desired to keep. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian fringe, adjacent to where a local resident was able to get away in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the frontier was heavily fortified.

Conserved Installations

A pair of guard towers are maintained in addition to a series of exhibits illustrating the most impactful dates in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the restrictions: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to care for their produce; the spouse could work the harvesting machine but never both, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but in excess of double the number individuals (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of destination. About 15,000 visited annually, optical devices in possession, to look – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up village similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed interest.

Modern Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and big parking lot – is expected to