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A creek so low you hardly got your ankles wet divided a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and stunning scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a partition. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Several months after their own wall was breached, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of residents started memorialising their history. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely ready. Telling the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the oddity never stood in the way of the residents socializing in the very same pub, attending the very same religious building and sending their kids to the identical school.

Following WWII Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the stream. For a year they seized the complete village, setting up their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers convinced them to withdraw across the stream. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were required to present identification, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The villagers could continue to see each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side signaling and yelling were forbidden. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for responding “back at you” to a West German local who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his working life creating it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how much barrier they wished to preserve. They opted for a section on the western fringe, near where one of their own was able to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are conserved alongside a set of tableaux depicting the most significant dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen lists the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to care for their fields; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but not the two, in case they sought to make a run for it. Soldiers stood watch.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but in excess of twice as many persons (well over 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They did not backed the socialist government nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. About 15k came to see every year, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Current Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and big vehicle area – is expected to