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A creek so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a settlement for over four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about documenting their heritage. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not entirely prepared. Addressing the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped families apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most famous for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the identical inn, visiting the very same church and enrolling their kids to the same educational institution.

After the War Split

Then came the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the brook. For a year they took over the whole community, creating their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a while, residents could continue to hop over, though as limitations became stricter they were required to show identity papers, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still see each other by climbing elevations, but on the east side signaling and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was added to a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “same to you” to a western villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life developing it. Villagers were consulted early on about how what length of wall they wanted to preserve. They opted for a section on the Bavarian edge, close to where one of their own was able to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Preserved Installations

2 watchtowers are maintained together with a series of exhibits depicting the most impactful events in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required special permission to care for their fields; the partner could work the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Context

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but over double the number persons (well over 300) died attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Approximately 15k visited every year, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a cafe, boutique, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is expected to