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An brook so shallow you barely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own wall was breached, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a group of local people began memorialising their history. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely ready. Addressing the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which pulled families asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk never stood in the manner of the locals drinking in the very same inn, visiting the very same religious building and sending their kids to the same school.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops installed wood stakes by the stream. For a year they occupied the entire community, creating their command in a house on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw back over the creek. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to show identification, even though everyone understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Increase of Boundary Measures

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still see each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a West German villager who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his professional career creating it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they wished to preserve. They opted for a portion on the west fringe, near where one of their own managed to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the border was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Structures

2 guard towers are preserved alongside a series of exhibits showing the most impactful events in the village’s past. As we move, the director lists the restrictions: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their fields; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but not the pair, lest they sought to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of twice as many individuals (more than 300) died attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their land. They did not supported the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15,000 came to see annually, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

25 years after merger, the television series, a TV series about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and big car park – is probable to