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A brook so narrow you barely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for more than four decades. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was marked first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers started documenting their history. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not completely ready. Speaking to the residents who experienced the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the identical inn, visiting the identical religious building and sending their children to the identical school.

After the War Split

Then came the World War II. The moment they came, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they seized the entire hamlet, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to show ID, although each person was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was constructed, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could still see each other by ascending hills, but on the east side signaling and shouting were forbidden. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a West German local who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a large part of his professional career creating it. Residents were polled at an early stage about how much structure they wanted to keep. They selected a section on the Bavarian fringe, close to where a local resident managed to flee in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the border was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Structures

2 observation towers are maintained alongside a set of exhibits illustrating the most significant moments in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, Lebergen lists the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to look after their produce; the spouse could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the two, lest they attempted to flee. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Background

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but more than twice as many individuals (well over 300) were killed trying to pass over it in countryside regions than in the big city. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or artisans, who adapted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They did not supported the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a kind of pilgrimage. About 15,000 came to see each year, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

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

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and large parking lot – is likely to