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A stream so low you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by pine forests, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a partition. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Several months after their own wall was breached, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers started commemorating their past. The project is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Addressing the villagers who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which pulled families apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped households asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most famous for assigning all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the path of the residents drinking in the very same inn, going to the identical church and enrolling their kids to the same learning center.

After the War Division

Then came the World War II. As soon as they arrived, the Russians installed wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they seized the whole hamlet, establishing their command in a building on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to pull back across the brook. For a time, residents could continue to jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to present ID, even though everyone knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The locals could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a West German local who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his working life creating it. Locals were consulted at an early stage about how much wall they desired to keep. They selected a stretch on the west edge, adjacent to where a villager managed to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the frontier was significantly fortified.

Preserved Installations

Two guard towers are conserved alongside a set of displays illustrating the most impactful dates in the community’s chronicle. As we walk, the director details the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to care for their produce; the spouse could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, lest they tried to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but more than twice as many persons (well over 300) lost their lives seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a kind of destination. About 15,000 visited annually, optical devices in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Modern Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, cinema room and big vehicle area – is likely to