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A creek so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a community for in excess of four decades. By an accident of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own division was torn down, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a group of villagers started memorialising their heritage. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely finished. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel division, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its men the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk never stood in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the very same tavern, visiting the identical religious building and sending their kids to the very same learning center.

After the War Division

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces installed wooden posts by the creek. For a year they seized the complete hamlet, setting up their headquarters in a house on the western side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a while, residents could still jump across, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to display identification, although all understood who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still view each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side signaling and calling out were banned. One woman was put on a Stasi watch list for replying “likewise” to a West German villager who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Villagers were polled in the initial phases about how what length of wall they wished to maintain. They chose a stretch on the west fringe, close to where a local resident succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Structures

2 observation towers are maintained in addition to a series of exhibits illustrating the most dramatic events in the village’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed special permission to look after their fields; the spouse could use the combine harvester but never the two, in case they sought to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but in excess of double the number individuals (exceeding 300) died trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They did not supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k came to visit each year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Modern Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, cinema room and large parking lot – is probable to