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An creek so low you scarcely got your feet wet separated a village for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Several months after their own division was torn down, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers began memorialising their history. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Telling the locals who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman split, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the path of the residents socializing in the very same tavern, going to the identical religious building and sending their kids to the same school.

Following WWII Separation

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the creek. For a annual period they took over the whole community, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans urged them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to show identity papers, even though all was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was erected, with mines, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could continue to view each other by scaling hills, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were prohibited. One woman was put on a Stasi surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a West German local who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Development

I heard stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his occupational time creating it. Locals were polled early on about how what length of wall they desired to keep. They opted for a stretch on the western perimeter, near where a villager managed to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the boundary was heavily fortified.

Maintained Structures

A pair of observation towers are preserved in addition to a collection of exhibits illustrating the most impactful moments in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required particular approval to look after their produce; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but not the pair, in case they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Context

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but more than two times more individuals (more than 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director tells me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. Approximately fifteen thousand visited each year, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Present-Day Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is probable to