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A brook so low you barely got your ankles wet divided a community for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a group of villagers set about memorialising their history. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the villagers who experienced the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which ripped families asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the identical pub, going to the same church and sending their young ones to the very same school.

After the War Division

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they arrived, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the whole hamlet, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces persuaded them to pull back back over the creek. For a time, locals could continue to hop over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to display identity papers, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Measures

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could continue to view each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side signaling and shouting were banned. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian local who greeted her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Residents were asked early on about how much barrier they wished to keep. They selected a portion on the west fringe, near where a local resident managed to get away in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the border was significantly fortified.

Maintained Installations

Two guard towers are maintained in addition to a collection of displays showing the most significant moments in the village’s history. As we move, Lebergen details the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to tend to their fields; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but not both, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the greatest, but over two times more people (exceeding 300) died seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their land. They neither supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. About 15k came to visit each year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a imaginary village resembling Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, boutique, film screening area and big car park – is probable to