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A creek so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet split a community for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

Months after their own division was opened, and before their country had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers started memorialising their history. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Addressing the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped families asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped families apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Past Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the locals drinking in the very same pub, visiting the same place of worship and enrolling their children to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the whole hamlet, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were required to present identification, although each person was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could continue to view each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were banned. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police surveillance list for answering “likewise” to a western resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his occupational time developing it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how how long a section wall they desired to preserve. They chose a section on the west perimeter, close to where a villager was able to flee in the dead of night with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of observation towers are maintained in addition to a collection of displays showing the most significant moments in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, the director enumerates the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required special permission to tend to their produce; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but never both, for fear that they attempted to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Larger Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most, but over double the number people (exceeding 300) died seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Community Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They did not backed the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand visited every year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, led to new curiosity.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and large parking lot – is probable to