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A stream so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a settlement for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and stunning scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people began memorialising their past. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not completely finished. Telling the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped families asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

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

Past Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the way of the locals socializing in the same pub, going to the very same place of worship and sending their kids to the very same school.

After the War Division

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces put up timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the complete hamlet, establishing their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a period, residents could still hop over, though as limitations increased they were forced to present ID, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and observation points. The locals could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and calling out were banned. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard narratives like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his professional career building it. Locals were asked early on about how what length of barrier they wished to preserve. They chose a stretch on the western edge, close to where a local resident managed to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Installations

2 observation towers are maintained in addition to a collection of displays showing the most significant dates in the village’s history. As we walk, Lebergen details the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Farmers required specific authorization to care for their fields; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Context

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but more than double the number persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their farms. They neither backed the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. About 15k visited annually, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

25 years after unification, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and big vehicle area – is likely to