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An brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a community for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers began documenting their history. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which tore households asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which tore families apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the way of the locals drinking in the same inn, going to the same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the identical school.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the World War II. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they took over the complete hamlet, setting up their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to withdraw across the stream. For a period, locals could still jump across, though as controls became stricter they were required to present ID, although all knew who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side signaling and yelling were prohibited. One woman was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who said her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were polled early on about how what length of wall they desired to keep. They opted for a section on the west perimeter, close to where a villager managed to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

A pair of guard towers are preserved in addition to a set of exhibits illustrating the most impactful events in the hamlet’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents required particular approval to look after their fields; the spouse could work the harvesting machine but not the pair, in case they attempted to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The frontier between Western Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the greatest, but in excess of two times more individuals (exceeding 300) were killed attempting to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director informs me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to dwelling in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They did not backed the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of destination. Approximately 15,000 came to visit each year, optical devices in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a made-up village similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, cinema room and sizable car park – is probable to