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An creek so narrow you barely got your ankles wet split a village for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own wall was breached, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a group of local people began documenting their history. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely prepared. Telling the locals who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which pulled households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which tore families asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk never stood in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the same pub, attending the very same place of worship and enrolling their kids to the identical school.

Following WWII Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Russians put up timber poles by the stream. For a year they occupied the whole hamlet, creating their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to pull back back over the creek. For a while, locals could still cross over, though as controls became stricter they were required to present ID, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Escalation of Frontier Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The residents could still view each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and yelling were banned. A female resident was placed on a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a West German resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Residents were polled early on about how how long a section wall they desired to maintain. They chose a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where a local resident succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the border was heavily reinforced.

Maintained Structures

2 watchtowers are preserved together with a collection of tableaux showing the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, the director enumerates the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to look after their produce; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but never the pair, in case they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Background

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but more than twice as many people (more than 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director tells me that 95% of escape attempts failed.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They did not backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to see annually, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a television program about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to new curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, cinema room and sizable parking lot – is expected to