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A stream so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a settlement for over four decades. By an accident of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own division was torn down, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people started commemorating their heritage. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the residents who experienced the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which tore relatives apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Background

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk never stood in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the very same pub, going to the very same religious building and sending their kids to the identical learning center.

After the War Split

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces erected timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they took over the entire community, creating their headquarters in a building on the western side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a period, residents could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were required to show ID, even though all understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. A local woman was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for answering “back at you” to a West German resident who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me stories including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how much structure they wanted to preserve. They chose a stretch on the west edge, close to where one of their own was able to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the border was significantly fortified.

Maintained Structures

A pair of watchtowers are preserved together with a set of displays showing the most dramatic dates in the community’s history. As we walk, Lebergen details the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required particular approval to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could work the harvesting machine but not the two, in case they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but more than double the number persons (more than 300) died seeking to traverse it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between a pair of political systems by avoiding attention and caring for their land. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a type of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k came to visit each year, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a imaginary village resembling Mödlareuth, led to new curiosity.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and big parking lot – is expected to