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An creek so low you scarcely got your feet wet separated a community for over four decades. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by pine forests, pastures and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving the Past

A few months after their own division was torn down, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people began memorialising their history. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Telling the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal split, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most famous for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the way of the residents drinking in the very same tavern, going to the very same religious building and sending their kids to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they came, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the complete hamlet, creating their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers persuaded them to retreat back over the brook. For a time, residents could continue to cross over, though as controls increased they were forced to present ID, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Boundary Controls

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and calling out were banned. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how how long a section structure they wished to keep. They chose a stretch on the west fringe, near where a villager managed to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of observation towers are preserved in addition to a set of displays depicting the most dramatic moments in the hamlet’s past. As we move, the director details the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed special permission to care for their produce; the partner could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, in case they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The border between West Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but more than two times more people (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director reminds me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between two political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their farms. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately 15,000 came to see each year, optical devices in hand, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Modern Evolutions

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and big car park – is probable to