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An stream so low you barely got your feet wet split a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own division was opened, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of villagers began documenting their history. The effort is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Telling the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal split, which tore families asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the manner of the residents drinking in the same tavern, visiting the same place of worship and placing their kids to the same educational institution.

Post-War Split

Then came the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the creek. For a annual period they took over the complete hamlet, establishing their command in a building on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a while, villagers could continue to hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to present identification, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could continue to see each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side waving and calling out were banned. A female resident was placed on a Stasi watch list for answering “back at you” to a western villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were polled early on about how how long a section barrier they desired to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the frontier was substantially fortified.

Preserved Installations

2 watchtowers are preserved together with a collection of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic dates in the village’s past. As we stroll, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to care for their produce; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, lest they attempted to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Larger Perspective

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the greatest, but in excess of two times more people (exceeding 300) died trying to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They nor did they endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of pilgrimage. Roughly 15,000 came to visit each year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, the TV show, a television program about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Modern Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, cinema room and large car park – is expected to