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An brook so narrow you barely got your ankles wet split a village for over four decades. By an accident of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was demarcated 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 opened, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of residents started memorialising their history. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Speaking to the residents who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which pulled families apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Background

Right from its founding in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the quirk did not stand in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the very same inn, visiting the very same church and placing their kids to the identical learning center.

Post-War Division

Then came the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the brook. For a year they seized the entire community, setting up their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a while, villagers could still hop over, though as controls tightened they were obliged to present identification, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still see each other by ascending hills, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a western local who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how much structure they desired to maintain. They opted for a section on the Bavarian edge, close to where a local resident managed to get away in the dead of night with a climbing device, subsequently the border was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

2 observation towers are preserved alongside a set of tableaux showing the most significant events in the community’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents required special permission to care for their produce; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but never the two, lest they sought to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Context

The border between Western Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but in excess of double the number persons (more than 300) died trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the village became a type of destination. Approximately fifteen thousand came to see every year, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Present-Day Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and sizable car park – is expected to