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An brook so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a village for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own division was opened, and even before their country had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people set about commemorating their heritage. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely prepared. Addressing the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which tore relatives apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the path of the locals drinking in the identical pub, attending the same place of worship and sending their kids to the identical school.

Post-War Split

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they appeared, the Russians put up wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the whole hamlet, creating their command in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to pull back across the stream. For a while, residents could still jump across, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to display ID, despite the fact that everyone understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Increase of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still see each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was added to a Stasi surveillance list for answering “likewise” to a Bavarian villager who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated much of his professional career creating it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how what length of barrier they wished to maintain. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where a villager succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Structures

2 watchtowers are preserved in addition to a collection of exhibits depicting the most significant events in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, the director details the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers needed special permission to care for their crops; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but never both, in case they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but in excess of two times more people (more than 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They did not backed the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. About fifteen thousand came to visit every year, binoculars in their hands, to look – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is likely to