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A brook so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a village for in excess of four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their country had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people began documenting their past. The project is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Telling the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal division, which tore families asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the village straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk never stood in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the identical inn, going to the very same religious building and sending their kids to the identical learning center.

After the War Separation

Then came the World War II. The moment they came, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the whole community, establishing their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to display identity papers, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian villager who wished her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career building it. Villagers were consulted early on about how how long a section barrier they desired to preserve. They chose a section on the west fringe, near where one of their own succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, after which the boundary was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

Two watchtowers are maintained alongside a collection of exhibits depicting the most significant events in the hamlet’s past. As we move, the director details the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to look after their crops; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances both, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but more than double the number people (exceeding 300) died trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They did not supported the socialist government nor opposed it, the director states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Roughly 15,000 came to visit each year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, caused new curiosity.

Current Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and large parking lot – is probable to