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A stream so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a community for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers began memorialising their heritage. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely ready. Telling the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel split, which pulled families apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Past Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the very same pub, going to the same church and enrolling their kids to the very same school.

Post-War Split

Then came the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces installed wooden posts by the creek. For a year they seized the whole hamlet, creating their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to pull back to the other side of the brook. For a time, locals could continue to jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to show identification, even though everyone understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could still observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side signaling and calling out were forbidden. One woman was put on a Stasi monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who said her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I heard stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his professional career creating it. Locals were asked early on about how much wall they wished to preserve. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where a local resident was able to flee in the dead of night with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Structures

Two guard towers are maintained together with a set of displays depicting the most significant events in the village’s past. As we stroll, the director details the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents needed special permission to care for their produce; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but never both, for fear that they attempted to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Wider Background

The border between West Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but over twice as many persons (exceeding 300) died seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and tending to their farms. They nor did they backed the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a type of pilgrimage. About 15k came to see every year, binoculars in hand, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after merger, the television series, a television program about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and large parking lot – is expected to