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An creek so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet split a village for in excess of four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, pastures and stunning scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people began memorialising their heritage. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely ready. Telling the locals who experienced the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore households asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family best known for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk never stood in the manner of the locals gathering in the very same pub, attending the identical church and sending their children to the very same school.

Following WWII Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the stream. For a year they took over the complete hamlet, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat back over the creek. For a period, residents could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to present ID, despite the fact that everyone understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Border Measures

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side waving and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a West German local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how how long a section wall they wanted to keep. They opted for a portion on the west perimeter, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, after which the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of observation towers are maintained alongside a series of tableaux depicting the most significant dates in the community’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents required special permission to care for their crops; the partner could work the combine harvester but not the two, lest they tried to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Background

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but in excess of two times more individuals (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director states.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to see every year, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up village similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Present-Day Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and large parking lot – is likely to