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A creek so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a community for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning views, 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 Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and before their country had become one in 1990, a group of villagers started commemorating their past. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely ready. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which pulled families apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Even at its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk never stood in the way of the locals gathering in the same pub, visiting the same place of worship and sending their young ones to the identical school.

After the War Separation

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians installed wooden posts by the stream. For a annual period they took over the entire village, creating their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to withdraw across the brook. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to show identification, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with mines, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could continue to observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the eastern side signaling and calling out were banned. A female resident was added to a GDR intelligence watch list for replying “likewise” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

It was related to me narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a large part of his occupational time developing it. Residents were consulted early on about how how long a section wall they wanted to preserve. They opted for a portion on the west perimeter, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the boundary was substantially strengthened.

Maintained Structures

2 guard towers are preserved in addition to a set of exhibits illustrating the most dramatic dates in the community’s history. As we move, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to tend to their crops; the husband or wife could work the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, in case they attempted to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Perspective

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most, but more than twice as many persons (exceeding 300) died seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They did not supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of destination. About 15k visited each year, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Current Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is probable to