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An brook so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a community for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a group of villagers started commemorating their past. The effort is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely prepared. Addressing the villagers who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an cruel separation, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the locals gathering in the identical inn, going to the same religious building and sending their kids to the same school.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russians installed wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the complete village, creating their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a period, residents could still hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to present ID, although each person was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could still see each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side signaling and calling out were banned. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a West German villager who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his occupational time developing it. Locals were asked early on about how what length of barrier they wished to maintain. They chose a portion on the Bavarian fringe, adjacent to where a villager managed to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, after which the border was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Structures

2 guard towers are conserved together with a series of displays showing the most impactful events in the community’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required particular approval to care for their fields; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but never the two, in case they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Larger Context

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most, but in excess of twice as many persons (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They neither supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand visited every year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

25 years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a imaginary village resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Modern Changes

The opening of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and big parking lot – is probable to