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A stream so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet split a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of residents started memorialising their history. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely finished. Telling the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel split, which pulled relatives asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for giving all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the residents drinking in the identical tavern, going to the very same religious building and placing their kids to the very same learning center.

After the War Split

Then came the global conflict. The moment they came, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the whole community, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans persuaded them to pull back back over the brook. For a period, residents could still cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were required to present ID, although all was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Boundary Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could continue to see each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side signaling and shouting were forbidden. A local woman was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a western villager who said her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how what length of wall they desired to maintain. They selected a section on the Bavarian edge, near where one of their own managed to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the boundary was significantly fortified.

Preserved Structures

Two observation towers are maintained in addition to a series of exhibits illustrating the most impactful dates in the village’s history. As we stroll, the director enumerates the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed special permission to care for their crops; the spouse could work the combine harvester but never both, for fear that they sought to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Background

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but over twice as many people (more than 300) were killed seeking to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of efforts to cross failed.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or artisans, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k came to visit annually, binoculars in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional village like Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Modern Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, movie theater and sizable vehicle area – is probable to