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A creek so low you barely got your feet wet split a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Several months after their own wall was opened, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a group of residents began commemorating their history. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not entirely prepared. Addressing the locals who experienced the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped families apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its men the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the quirk did not stand in the path of the locals drinking in the very same tavern, visiting the identical religious building and placing their children to the identical school.

Post-War Division

Next arrived the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russians erected wooden posts by the brook. For a year they occupied the complete village, setting up their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to retreat back over the creek. For a time, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to show ID, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with mines, tank traps and watchtowers. The residents could still see each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was put on a East German secret police watch list for responding “likewise” to a West German resident who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his working life creating it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section structure they wanted to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the western fringe, adjacent to where a villager was able to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was substantially fortified.

Conserved Installations

Two observation towers are preserved together with a collection of tableaux illustrating the most impactful moments in the community’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: no one could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to care for their fields; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but not the pair, for fear that they sought to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Context

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but in excess of two times more people (well over 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between two political systems by avoiding attention and caring for their farms. They neither supported the socialist government nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of site of interest. About 15,000 came to see annually, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and big parking lot – is expected to