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A stream so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a village for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers began documenting their history. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Addressing the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

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

Historical Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the community straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the very same pub, visiting the same place of worship and placing their young ones to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Then came the World War II. The moment they came, the Russians installed wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the whole hamlet, setting up their command in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to retreat across the brook. For a time, villagers could continue to cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to display identification, even though all was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could continue to view each other by climbing hills, but on the eastern side signaling and shouting were prohibited. One woman was added to a East German secret police watch list for replying “same to you” to a West German villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time building it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how much barrier they wished to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the western fringe, close to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the border was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

Two observation towers are maintained in addition to a series of tableaux illustrating the most significant moments in the community’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required specific authorization to tend to their fields; the partner could work the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, lest they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but more than two times more individuals (well over 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and tending to their farms. They did not supported the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. Roughly 15k came to visit every year, binoculars in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Modern Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, boutique, film screening area and large parking lot – is probable to