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An brook so low you scarcely got your ankles wet split a community for over four decades of time. By an accident of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own wall was breached, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a assembly of residents began memorialising their history. The work is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely ready. Addressing the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were observers of an inhuman split, which tore families asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for assigning all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the locals drinking in the identical pub, attending the very same place of worship and sending their kids to the same educational institution.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Russians installed timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the entire village, establishing their headquarters in a building on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to retreat across the creek. For a period, residents could continue to cross over, though as limitations tightened they were required to display ID, although all understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The residents could still observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side signaling and shouting were forbidden. One woman was added to a Stasi monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his occupational time building it. Residents were consulted early on about how what length of structure they wanted to keep. They chose a section on the western edge, near where a local resident managed to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the border was substantially fortified.

Preserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are maintained together with a series of displays illustrating the most dramatic dates in the community’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the border. Farmers needed particular approval to care for their crops; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but not both, in case they tried to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most frequently, but more than two times more people (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who accommodated to living in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They neither supported the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. About fifteen thousand visited each year, optical devices in their hands, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

25 years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, film screening area and large car park – is probable to