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A stream so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a community for in excess of four decades of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about documenting their heritage. The effort is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman split, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which pulled families apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the way of the residents socializing in the same inn, attending the same religious building and placing their children to the identical educational institution.

After the War Separation

Then came the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the entire village, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to pull back across the brook. For a period, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to display identification, even though everyone understood who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still see each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and shouting were forbidden. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for responding “back at you” to a Bavarian villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Locals were consulted at an early stage about how much structure they wished to preserve. They opted for a portion on the west perimeter, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Structures

2 watchtowers are maintained together with a series of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic moments in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we move, the director details the rules: no one could approach 5km of the border. Farmers required special permission to look after their fields; the spouse could work the combine harvester but never both, in case they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Background

The boundary between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many persons (exceeding 300) were killed trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to residing in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor resisted it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of destination. Approximately 15k visited every year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a made-up community similar to Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and sizable parking lot – is expected to