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A brook so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a settlement for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a barrier and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own wall was opened, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people started documenting their past. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not completely prepared. Addressing the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which pulled families apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

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

Bygone Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the identical inn, visiting the same church and sending their young ones to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops installed timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the whole village, creating their command in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a time, residents could still hop over, though as limitations increased they were required to display ID, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Border Measures

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was constructed, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could continue to see each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side waving and calling out were banned. One woman was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a western villager who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his professional career developing it. Residents were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they wanted to keep. They selected a section on the Bavarian fringe, near where one of their own managed to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was significantly fortified.

Preserved Installations

Two watchtowers are preserved in addition to a set of exhibits illustrating the most dramatic moments in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to care for their produce; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but never the two, lest they tried to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many persons (exceeding 300) died attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. the director informs me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Community Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their fields. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Roughly 15,000 visited each year, optical devices in their hands, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is probable to