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A creek so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a village for in excess of four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and before their state had become one in 1990, a group of local people started commemorating their past. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which pulled families asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal split, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity never stood in the way of the locals gathering in the same tavern, attending the same place of worship and enrolling their children to the same learning center.

After the War Split

Then came the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the stream. For a year they took over the entire community, creating their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a while, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations increased they were required to present identity papers, although each person was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with mines, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could continue to observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian local who greeted her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his working life developing it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how what length of barrier they desired to keep. They chose a portion on the Bavarian edge, close to where a villager succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

2 guard towers are conserved together with a series of displays depicting the most impactful dates in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern enumerates the rules: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers needed special permission to tend to their fields; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, lest they sought to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but more than double the number persons (well over 300) were killed trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director informs me that 95% of escape attempts failed.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their fields. They did not supported the socialist government nor opposed it, the director explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to visit each year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

25 years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a made-up community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and big vehicle area – is likely to