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An creek so low you hardly got your ankles wet split a community for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own division was opened, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents set about memorialising their history. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Addressing the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which pulled relatives apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its creation in 1810, the village straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk never stood in the path of the residents socializing in the identical pub, visiting the same place of worship and placing their young ones to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the World War II. The moment they came, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the entire village, creating their control center in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to withdraw back over the brook. For a period, villagers could still jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to display identity papers, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with mines, tank traps and watchtowers. The residents could still view each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a western villager who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

It was related to me accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were asked early on about how how long a section barrier they wished to preserve. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian fringe, adjacent to where one of their own managed to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, after which the border was significantly reinforced.

Preserved Installations

Two observation towers are conserved in addition to a collection of displays showing the most significant events in the hamlet’s history. As we move, the director lists the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents required specific authorization to care for their produce; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, lest they sought to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but in excess of two times more people (well over 300) died trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Hamlet Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between two political systems by avoiding attention and tending to their fields. They neither endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a kind of destination. Approximately 15,000 came to see annually, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up village similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Current Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and big car park – is likely to