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An stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet divided a village for more than four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a group of residents began commemorating their past. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Telling the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal split, which tore households into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel split, which tore families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Background

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the locals drinking in the very same tavern, going to the same church and placing their kids to the identical educational institution.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians installed wooden posts by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the whole community, creating their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the brook. For a while, residents could continue to hop over, though as limitations increased they were obliged to show ID, although all was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could continue to observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side signaling and yelling were banned. One woman was put on a Stasi surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a West German local who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me narratives including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his working life developing it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wished to keep. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, near where a villager succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, after which the border was heavily fortified.

Maintained Installations

2 watchtowers are conserved in addition to a series of exhibits illustrating the most significant moments in the hamlet’s history. As we move, the director enumerates the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents needed special permission to look after their crops; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but never both, lest they sought to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Background

The frontier between West Germany and the GDR extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but more than two times more individuals (well over 300) died trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They neither supported the socialist government nor resisted it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to visit every year, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and large vehicle area – is expected to