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A creek so shallow you barely got your ankles wet separated a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own wall was torn down, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about documenting their history. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely prepared. Addressing the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped households asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

Past Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the identical inn, going to the same church and placing their children to the identical school.

Post-War Split

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces erected timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the whole village, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a period, residents could continue to cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to show identification, even though all knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could continue to observe each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were banned. One woman was put on a Stasi surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

It was related to me stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career building it. Locals were asked in the initial phases about how much barrier they wished to preserve. They opted for a section on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the border was significantly fortified.

Conserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are maintained in addition to a collection of displays depicting the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, the director enumerates the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers had to obtain particular approval to look after their produce; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but not the pair, lest they attempted to flee. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Perspective

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but over double the number persons (exceeding 300) were killed trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They did not backed the socialist government nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15,000 came to see every year, binoculars in their hands, to stare – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in new interest.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and big parking lot – is probable to