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A creek so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, pastures and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was opened, and before their state had become one in 1990, a assembly of villagers started documenting their heritage. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely ready. Speaking to the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which tore households apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the very same pub, going to the same religious building and enrolling their children to the very same educational institution.

After the War Division

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Russians put up wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they took over the whole hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans urged them to retreat back over the creek. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to display ID, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Increase of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The villagers could still see each other by ascending hills, but on the east side signaling and yelling were banned. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “likewise” to a western resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his professional career building it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they wished to keep. They chose a portion on the west perimeter, near where one of their own was able to get away in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

Two observation towers are preserved in addition to a series of exhibits illustrating the most significant dates in the village’s chronicle. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their fields; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they attempted to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but over two times more persons (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of escape attempts failed.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to living in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They did not backed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a type of pilgrimage. About 15,000 visited annually, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, movie theater and sizable car park – is likely to