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An stream so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a community for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by pine forests, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Several months after their own division was opened, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a collection of residents started documenting their past. The project is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite finished. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most famous for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk never stood in the way of the residents socializing in the same inn, visiting the very same place of worship and placing their kids to the identical school.

Post-War Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians installed timber poles by the brook. For a twelve months they took over the complete hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to retreat back over the stream. For a while, residents could still cross over, though as limitations tightened they were forced to present identity papers, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, tank traps and watchtowers. The residents could still view each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side signaling and calling out were banned. A local woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for replying “likewise” to a West German local who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Locals were consulted in the initial phases about how much barrier they wished to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the west edge, adjacent to where a local resident was able to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the border was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Structures

Two observation towers are maintained together with a set of exhibits illustrating the most impactful dates in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Farmers required particular approval to tend to their crops; the spouse could use the combine harvester but not the two, in case they tried to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but over two times more people (well over 300) died trying to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Village Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or artisans, who adapted to living in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They did not supported the communist regime nor opposed it, the director explains.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. Approximately 15,000 visited each year, optical devices in hand, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and sizable parking lot – is likely to