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An creek so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a community for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people set about documenting their past. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore households asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel division, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the locals drinking in the very same tavern, going to the same place of worship and placing their young ones to the same learning center.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they came, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the complete community, establishing their command in a building on the western side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a while, villagers could continue to hop over, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to present ID, despite the fact that each person knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification 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 mines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The villagers could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were banned. A local woman was placed on a Stasi monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a western resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me narratives including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how how long a section wall they desired to preserve. They chose a section on the western perimeter, close to where a local resident managed to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the border was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Installations

Two guard towers are preserved together with a set of exhibits depicting the most dramatic events in the community’s past. As we stroll, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents required specific authorization to look after their produce; the husband or wife could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they sought to flee. Military personnel stood watch.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the greatest, but over double the number persons (exceeding 300) were killed attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They did not supported the communist regime nor fought it, the director states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Roughly 15k came to visit each year, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

25 years after unification, the television series, a television program about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Modern Developments

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