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An creek so narrow you barely got your feet wet divided a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Months after their own division was opened, and even before their state had become one in 1990, a collection of local people began documenting their history. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Telling the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal split, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Bygone Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity never stood in the way of the locals socializing in the identical tavern, visiting the very same religious building and sending their children to the same educational institution.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the complete village, setting up their headquarters in a house on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers convinced them to withdraw across the creek. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were required to display ID, although each person knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with mines, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could still view each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were banned. One woman was put on a Stasi watch list for replying “likewise” to a western villager who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I was told stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his occupational time developing it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how much barrier they wished to preserve. They opted for a portion on the western fringe, near where one of their own succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Installations

Two observation towers are preserved together with a series of tableaux showing the most dramatic dates in the village’s history. As we stroll, Lebergen details the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their produce; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but never the two, in case they tried to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but more than two times more individuals (more than 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director informs me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adapted to residing in the grey zone between two political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to see every year, binoculars in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional village like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Modern Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, boutique, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is probable to