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An creek so shallow you barely got your feet wet divided a village for in excess of four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Months after their own wall was breached, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a collection of residents began memorialising their history. The effort is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite finished. Speaking to the villagers who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which ripped relatives apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the oddity did not stand in the path of the residents gathering in the same inn, attending the identical church and sending their kids to the very same learning center.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they seized the whole hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to retreat back over the creek. For a period, locals could still cross over, though as controls tightened they were obliged to show identity papers, even though all understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Controls

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side waving and calling out were prohibited. One woman was put on a East German secret police surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian local who said her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his occupational time building it. Residents were polled in the initial phases about how much structure they wanted to maintain. They chose a section on the west perimeter, close to where a local resident managed to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, after which the border was substantially fortified.

Preserved Buildings

A pair of observation towers are maintained in addition to a set of exhibits showing the most significant dates in the community’s past. As we walk, the director enumerates the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed particular approval to care for their fields; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but never the pair, for fear that they attempted to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Broader Background

The boundary between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but over two times more individuals (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director informs me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. About 15k came to visit each year, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Current Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and large vehicle area – is likely to