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A brook so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a village for over four decades of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their country had unified again in 1990, a group of local people set about memorialising their history. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the same inn, visiting the identical church and placing their children to the same learning center.

After the War Split

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russians erected wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the whole village, setting up their command in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers convinced them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a period, villagers could still cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to show identification, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Border Controls

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could continue to see each other by climbing elevations, but on the east side signaling and yelling were banned. A female resident was added to a Stasi monitoring list for responding “back at you” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time building it. Locals were asked early on about how much wall they wished to maintain. They selected a section on the Bavarian fringe, near where one of their own was able to flee in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Installations

Two observation towers are preserved alongside a set of tableaux depicting the most dramatic moments in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen details the regulations: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to look after their produce; the partner could operate the agricultural equipment but never the two, lest they tried to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Larger Background

The frontier between West Germany 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 recalled and documented the greatest, but in excess of double the number people (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They did not backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the village became a type of destination. About 15k came to see annually, optical devices in possession, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a television program about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, led to new curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The opening of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and sizable vehicle area – is expected to