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An brook so low you barely got your feet wet divided a community for more than four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own barrier was breached, and before their country had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people began documenting their heritage. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not completely prepared. Speaking to the locals who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which ripped households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the very same inn, visiting the very same religious building and sending their kids to the same educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the creek. For a annual period they took over the entire village, establishing their command in a house on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a time, locals could continue to hop over, though as controls tightened they were obliged to present identity papers, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was built, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still see each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were banned. A local woman was added to a Stasi watch list for replying “likewise” to a western villager who said her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his working life creating it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how much barrier they wished to maintain. They selected a stretch on the west edge, near where a villager was able to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, after which the frontier was substantially fortified.

Maintained Installations

A pair of observation towers are maintained alongside a set of exhibits showing the most dramatic dates in the village’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern lists the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Farmers needed special permission to care for their crops; the spouse could use the combine harvester but never the pair, for fear that they sought to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Context

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but more than double the number people (well over 300) were killed trying to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director tells me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They nor did they backed the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. About 15k came to visit every year, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and large vehicle area – is likely to