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An brook so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own division was breached, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people set about commemorating their heritage. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel split, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the locals socializing in the same inn, attending the same religious building and placing their kids to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians put up wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the whole village, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to retreat across the stream. For a period, locals could continue to hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to present identity papers, even though everyone understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could still see each other by climbing hills, but on the east side waving and calling out were banned. A female resident was added to a Stasi monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a western resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career building it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how how long a section wall they wished to keep. They selected a section on the west edge, adjacent to where a villager managed to get away in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Conserved Installations

A pair of watchtowers are maintained together with a collection of displays illustrating the most dramatic moments in the community’s history. As we stroll, the director enumerates the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents required particular approval to care for their produce; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but never the two, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but over twice as many people (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They neither endorsed the communist regime nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. About 15,000 came to see annually, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a television program about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Current Changes

The opening of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is probable to