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An stream so narrow you barely got your ankles wet separated a village for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own division was breached, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a group of local people started commemorating their history. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not entirely ready. Addressing the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk never stood in the way of the residents gathering in the very same tavern, visiting the same place of worship and sending their young ones to the very same educational institution.

After the War Split

Then came the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the entire community, creating their control center in a building on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a time, villagers could continue to hop over, though as limitations tightened they were required to display identity papers, although everyone knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could continue to view each other by scaling slopes, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were forbidden. One woman was placed on a East German secret police watch list for answering “back at you” to a western resident who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his occupational time building it. Residents were consulted early on about how what length of structure they wished to preserve. They selected a section on the west fringe, close to where one of their own managed to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Structures

Two observation towers are preserved alongside a collection of exhibits showing the most significant dates in the community’s past. As we move, Lebergen details the regulations: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to care for their produce; the partner could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances the two, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but in excess of twice as many people (well over 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director tells me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They did not supported the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Approximately 15k visited annually, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, movie theater and sizable parking lot – is expected to