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An stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet divided a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was opened, and before their country had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers began documenting their heritage. The effort is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not completely finished. Telling the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman split, which pulled families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Bygone Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk never stood in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the same inn, going to the same church and placing their kids to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Division

Then came the World War II. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they seized the entire hamlet, creating their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat across the creek. For a time, residents could still cross over, though as controls increased they were obliged to show identity papers, even though all knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side signaling and yelling were forbidden. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “back at you” to a West German resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his working life building it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how how long a section structure they wished to keep. They chose a section on the Bavarian perimeter, near where a local resident was able to escape in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the frontier was significantly fortified.

Maintained Structures

2 watchtowers are conserved together with a set of displays illustrating the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to look after their crops; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but not the two, lest they attempted to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of two times more people (exceeding 300) died trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. Roughly 15,000 came to see each year, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Modern Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and large parking lot – is expected to