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A brook so low you scarcely got your ankles wet split a village for more than four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was opened, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of villagers started memorialising their history. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely ready. Speaking to the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which tore families asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal division, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the village straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity did not stand in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the identical inn, visiting the identical church and sending their young ones to the same school.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces put up timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they took over the whole village, setting up their command in a house on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a period, locals could still cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to show identity papers, although everyone knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still view each other by climbing hills, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “likewise” to a western resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

I heard stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career developing it. Villagers were consulted early on about how what length of barrier they desired to keep. They chose a portion on the west perimeter, near where one of their own managed to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Installations

2 watchtowers are maintained together with a set of displays showing the most significant moments in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, the director lists the rules: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to look after their produce; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, lest they sought to escape. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Context

The border between West Germany and the East Germany stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but in excess of two times more individuals (well over 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and tending to their farms. They neither supported the communist regime nor opposed it, the director explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a kind of destination. Roughly 15k came to visit each year, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a made-up community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, movie theater and big parking lot – is likely to