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An brook so shallow you barely got your ankles wet separated a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about documenting their past. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely ready. Speaking to the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which tore families apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which pulled households apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity never stood in the way of the locals gathering in the very same pub, going to the same church and enrolling their children to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Russians installed timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the entire village, creating their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a time, residents could still hop over, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to present identity papers, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could continue to see each other by climbing hills, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a Bavarian local who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I heard accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how much structure they wanted to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the western perimeter, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, after which the frontier was significantly fortified.

Conserved Buildings

Two observation towers are maintained together with a series of displays showing the most dramatic dates in the village’s history. As we move, Lebergen details the regulations: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed special permission to look after their fields; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but never both, for fear that they attempted to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but more than twice as many individuals (well over 300) were killed seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. the director tells me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They neither backed the communist regime nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. Approximately fifteen thousand visited annually, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a television program about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, cinema room and large car park – is expected to