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A brook so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a settlement for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a group of residents began documenting their heritage. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely ready. Telling the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal division, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity did not stand in the manner of the locals socializing in the identical pub, going to the very same church and sending their children to the identical school.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the entire community, establishing their command in a building on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw across the brook. For a time, locals could still cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to present identity papers, although everyone understood who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was put on a Stasi surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a West German villager who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I was told accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his occupational time building it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how what length of structure they wanted to preserve. They opted for a portion on the west perimeter, near where a villager was able to escape in the dead of night with a ladder, after which the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

Two observation towers are conserved in addition to a set of displays showing the most dramatic dates in the community’s chronicle. As we walk, the director lists the regulations: nobody could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed special permission to care for their fields; the spouse could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, lest they tried to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Context

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the greatest, but over two times more individuals (more than 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of efforts to cross failed.

Hamlet Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between a pair of belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the village became a type of destination. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit each year, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a imaginary community like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, film screening area and sizable car park – is likely to