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A brook so narrow you barely got your feet wet split a village for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by pine forests, fields and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people started memorialising their heritage. The effort is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely prepared. Telling the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

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

Historical Background

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the very same inn, attending the same place of worship and placing their children to the very same learning center.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they took over the complete community, establishing their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to pull back back over the creek. For a period, residents could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to display identification, although all understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The residents could still observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side signaling and calling out were banned. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for replying “back at you” to a western local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

I heard accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how how long a section structure they wanted to maintain. They chose a portion on the Bavarian fringe, near where one of their own managed to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the border was substantially fortified.

Maintained Installations

Two watchtowers are maintained together with a collection of displays depicting the most impactful events in the hamlet’s past. As we move, the director details the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents required special permission to tend to their fields; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but not the pair, in case they sought to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The border between Western Germany and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but over twice as many individuals (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They did not backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. About 15,000 came to see every year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and big vehicle area – is expected to