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A brook so low you barely got your feet wet split a community for more than four decades of time. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Several months after their own division was torn down, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers began commemorating their past. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not entirely ready. Telling the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which ripped households apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

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

Historical Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family best known for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the identical inn, visiting the very same place of worship and placing their children to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Then came the second world war. The moment they came, the Russians installed timber poles by the creek. For a year they occupied the entire village, creating their headquarters in a house on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to pull back to the other side of the brook. For a time, locals could still cross over, though as controls increased they were required to display identity papers, even though all was aware who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could still view each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and shouting were forbidden. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a western resident who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I was told stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how much structure they wanted to keep. They chose a portion on the west fringe, near where one of their own succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the boundary was substantially fortified.

Preserved Buildings

Two observation towers are maintained together with a series of displays depicting the most significant dates in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required special permission to care for their crops; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, lest they tried to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but more than two times more individuals (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They nor did they backed the socialist government nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit every year, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Current Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, movie theater and sizable vehicle area – is probable to