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A stream so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet split a village for more than four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by pine forests, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a assembly of villagers began documenting their past. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not entirely ready. Addressing the locals who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which pulled families asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were observers of an inhuman split, which pulled households apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the identical inn, visiting the same religious building and placing their kids to the identical learning center.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the complete community, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans convinced them to retreat across the stream. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as limitations increased they were forced to present identification, although each person knew who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could continue to see each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side signaling and calling out were forbidden. One woman was added to a Stasi monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a western villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his working life creating it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how what length of structure they wished to maintain. They selected a section on the western fringe, near where a local resident was able to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Structures

Two guard towers are conserved in addition to a collection of tableaux illustrating the most significant moments in the community’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed special permission to care for their crops; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, in case they sought to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Context

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number people (exceeding 300) died attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the ambiguous area between a pair of belief systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They nor did they endorsed the communist regime nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand came to see each year, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and big vehicle area – is likely to