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A stream so narrow you barely got your feet wet split a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers started documenting their past. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which pulled households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the peculiarity never stood in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the very same inn, going to the same religious building and placing their children to the very same learning center.

Post-War Split

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Russians put up timber poles by the stream. For a year they seized the entire hamlet, creating their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a while, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations increased they were forced to show identity papers, even though each person understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could still see each other by ascending hills, but on the east side waving and shouting were banned. A local woman was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I was told stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his occupational time developing it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how much wall they wished to preserve. They chose a section on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where a villager was able to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Structures

2 watchtowers are maintained together with a series of exhibits depicting the most dramatic moments in the community’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents required specific authorization to care for their produce; the partner could operate the agricultural equipment but not the pair, in case they sought to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but more than two times more people (exceeding 300) were killed trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They neither supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k visited each year, optical devices in their hands, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Present-Day Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and big vehicle area – is probable to