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A brook so shallow you barely got your feet wet separated a village for more than four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own division was breached, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of villagers began documenting their past. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel division, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which tore families asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Origins

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and counting them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity never stood in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the very same inn, visiting the identical place of worship and placing their kids to the same learning center.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the complete community, establishing their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw across the stream. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as controls tightened they were obliged to display identification, even though all knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with explosives, tank traps and watchtowers. The villagers could still view each other by scaling hills, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were banned. One woman was added to a Stasi watch list for answering “same to you” to a West German resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me accounts such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his working life developing it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how much wall they wanted to maintain. They opted for a section on the Bavarian edge, near where one of their own succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, after which the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

2 observation towers are maintained in addition to a series of exhibits showing the most significant moments in the community’s past. As we walk, Lebergen lists the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to care for their crops; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but never both, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Context

The border between West Germany and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of two times more people (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They did not backed the communist regime nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a kind of destination. Roughly 15,000 came to see annually, optical devices in possession, to look – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the television series, a television program about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Present-Day Changes

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and large car park – is probable to