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An stream so shallow you barely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for over four decades. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by pine forests, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of local people set about memorialising their history. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not completely prepared. Telling the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

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

Past Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the residents socializing in the identical inn, going to the same place of worship and sending their young ones to the identical school.

After the War Division

Then came the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the creek. For a year they took over the complete community, setting up their control center in a house on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw back over the stream. For a time, residents could still jump across, though as controls increased they were required to show identification, even though everyone understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still view each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were banned. A female resident was added to a Stasi surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a western local who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his professional career developing it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how much structure they desired to maintain. They selected a section on the west perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are conserved together with a series of displays illustrating the most dramatic dates in the community’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents needed particular approval to care for their fields; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but never both, in case they sought to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but over double the number people (exceeding 300) were killed attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to visit each year, binoculars in their hands, to look – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and sizable car park – is likely to