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A brook so narrow you hardly got your feet wet separated a village for more than four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Months after their own wall was opened, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers started documenting their past. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Addressing the residents who experienced the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel split, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were observers of an inhuman split, which ripped families asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Past Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the residents drinking in the very same inn, attending the identical church and sending their young ones to the very same school.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the World War II. The moment they came, the Soviet forces erected timber poles by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the whole village, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers persuaded them to retreat across the stream. For a period, residents could still hop over, though as limitations increased they were required to show identification, even though everyone knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with landmines, tank traps and observation points. The locals could continue to see each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were banned. A local woman was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for replying “back at you” to a West German villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

I was told narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his professional career creating it. Residents were polled in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wanted to preserve. They selected a portion on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a climbing device, subsequently the border was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

A pair of guard towers are conserved in addition to a set of exhibits showing the most significant events in the community’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern lists the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents needed particular approval to tend to their fields; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but never the pair, lest they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most frequently, but more than two times more individuals (well over 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. the director reminds me that 95% of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between a pair of belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, the director states.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. Roughly 15k visited annually, binoculars in hand, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Current Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and sizable vehicle area – is likely to