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An stream so shallow you barely got your feet wet separated a village for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving the Past

A few months after their own wall was breached, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of local people began documenting their history. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely prepared. Speaking to the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman split, which tore relatives apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the oddity did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the identical inn, going to the very same place of worship and sending their kids to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Russians erected wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the entire village, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to retreat across the creek. For a while, locals could still hop over, though as controls increased they were forced to show ID, despite the fact that each person knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could still see each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side waving and shouting were banned. A local woman was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a western resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his occupational time building it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how much structure they wanted to keep. They opted for a portion on the western perimeter, near where a villager managed to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the border was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of watchtowers are conserved in addition to a collection of displays illustrating the most dramatic moments in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, Lebergen enumerates the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Farmers needed specific authorization to tend to their fields; the partner could use the harvesting machine but not the two, in case they tried to flee. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Background

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but more than two times more persons (exceeding 300) died attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the grey zone between two political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They did not supported the communist regime nor opposed it, the director states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit every year, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after merger, the television series, a television program about a imaginary hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and big vehicle area – is expected to