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An creek so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a settlement for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Months after their own division was opened, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of residents set about documenting their heritage. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the locals who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an cruel division, which pulled households asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the quirk never stood in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the very same inn, going to the same religious building and enrolling their children to the same school.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the stream. For a year they occupied the entire hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to pull back to the other side of the brook. For a time, residents could continue to cross over, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to present identity papers, although each person knew who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The residents could continue to see each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a western villager who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me narratives like these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career building it. Residents were consulted early on about how how long a section wall they wanted to preserve. They opted for a portion on the west fringe, near where a local resident was able to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the border was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Structures

A pair of observation towers are conserved in addition to a collection of exhibits showing the most impactful moments in the community’s chronicle. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed particular approval to tend to their crops; the spouse could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they sought to escape. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but in excess of double the number persons (more than 300) died attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the grey zone between two belief systems by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They neither endorsed the communist regime nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to see every year, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a imaginary community like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and big vehicle area – is probable to