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An stream so low you barely got your ankles wet divided a village for in excess of four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was marked first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about commemorating their heritage. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely ready. Speaking to the residents who experienced the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an cruel division, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most famous for bestowing all its men the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the way of the residents socializing in the same pub, going to the identical church and enrolling their kids to the same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians erected timber poles by the brook. For a year they took over the complete hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a while, villagers could still jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to display identification, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at night.

Increase of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The locals could continue to view each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and calling out were prohibited. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated much of his occupational time building it. Residents were polled early on about how much structure they wished to maintain. They selected a section on the west edge, close to where one of their own managed to flee in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, subsequently the boundary was substantially fortified.

Conserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are conserved in addition to a collection of tableaux depicting the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s past. As we move, the director enumerates the regulations: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents required special permission to care for their fields; the husband or wife could work the harvesting machine but never the pair, in case they sought to escape. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Background

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but over twice as many individuals (well over 300) were killed attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to living in the ambiguous area between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They neither backed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of destination. About 15k came to see each year, optical devices in hand, to look – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, boutique, cinema room and large vehicle area – is likely to