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A creek so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet split a village for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Months after their own division was breached, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents started commemorating their history. The effort is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel split, which pulled households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which pulled households into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Bygone Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most famous for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the residents drinking in the same tavern, attending the same church and sending their kids to the very same school.

Following WWII Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops installed timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the entire village, creating their control center in a house on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to pull back back over the brook. For a while, residents could still cross over, though as controls tightened they were forced to show identity papers, although each person was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could still see each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were prohibited. One woman was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian local who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career creating it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how much barrier they desired to keep. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where a local resident managed to flee in the dead of night with a scaling tool, after which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

Two guard towers are maintained together with a set of tableaux showing the most dramatic moments in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director enumerates the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to look after their produce; the spouse could use the agricultural equipment but not the pair, in case they sought to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but more than double the number persons (exceeding 300) died attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They did not supported the socialist government nor fought it, the director explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to visit every year, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, movie theater and large car park – is likely to