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A brook so low you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a village for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own wall was breached, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people set about documenting their history. The work is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely finished. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which tore households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the community straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the way of the residents gathering in the very same inn, attending the very same place of worship and sending their children to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Russians erected timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they seized the entire hamlet, setting up their command in a building on the western side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to pull back across the brook. For a period, residents could still cross over, though as controls tightened they were required to display ID, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. One woman was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a Bavarian local who greeted her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me accounts such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time creating it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how what length of structure they wanted to maintain. They opted for a section on the west fringe, near where a local resident succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Structures

Two guard towers are maintained alongside a set of tableaux illustrating the most impactful events in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen details the regulations: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Farmers needed specific authorization to care for their produce; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but not both, in case they attempted to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many persons (well over 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. About 15,000 visited every year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary community resembling Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Current Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and large vehicle area – is likely to