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An brook so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet split a community for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people set about documenting their past. The project is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Addressing the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal division, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

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

Bygone Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the oddity never stood in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the very same pub, going to the same church and placing their kids to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Then came the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians installed timber poles by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the entire community, setting up their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a while, locals could still cross over, though as limitations tightened they were required to display identity papers, even though all understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Escalation of Border Controls

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could continue to observe each other by ascending hills, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “same to you” to a western local who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section structure they wished to keep. They selected a section on the western perimeter, near where a villager was able to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the frontier was substantially fortified.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of watchtowers are preserved in addition to a collection of exhibits depicting the most significant moments in the village’s chronicle. As we move, the director lists the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Farmers needed special permission to look after their fields; the spouse could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the two, in case they attempted to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many people (exceeding 300) were killed trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between two political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a type of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand came to see every year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Modern Evolutions

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and large vehicle area – is likely to