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An stream so low you barely got your ankles wet divided a village for in excess of four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a group of residents started commemorating their history. The project is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite finished. Speaking to the residents who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an inhuman split, which ripped households apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Past Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the same pub, attending the same place of worship and placing their children to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the stream. For a annual period they took over the complete hamlet, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to retreat back over the creek. For a time, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations increased they were required to present ID, although everyone knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could still view each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side signaling and calling out were forbidden. One woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a western local who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I was told accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his working life building it. Residents were polled at an early stage about how much wall they wanted to maintain. They opted for a section on the Bavarian perimeter, near where a local resident was able to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, after which the border was significantly reinforced.

Preserved Structures

Two observation towers are preserved together with a set of displays showing the most impactful moments in the community’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their produce; the partner could work the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, in case they attempted to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but more than double the number people (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director tells me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They neither supported the communist regime nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of destination. Approximately 15,000 visited each year, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Modern Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, movie theater and big car park – is probable to