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A stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet separated a settlement for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

Several months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people set about memorialising their heritage. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Speaking to the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal split, which tore households into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk never stood in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the identical tavern, visiting the identical church and sending their children to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the global conflict. The moment they came, the Soviet forces installed wooden posts by the stream. For a year they occupied the whole community, setting up their control center in a building on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a time, locals could continue to jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to display identity papers, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could continue to see each other by climbing hills, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. One woman was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I was told narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life creating it. Residents were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section wall they wished to preserve. They opted for a section on the west edge, near where a villager was able to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the frontier was substantially fortified.

Conserved Structures

2 watchtowers are conserved alongside a set of exhibits depicting the most dramatic events in the community’s chronicle. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents needed special permission to look after their produce; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but not both, for fear that they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers stood watch.

Larger Background

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but over two times more persons (more than 300) were killed trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They did not supported the East German authorities nor fought it, the director states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of destination. Roughly 15k visited each year, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Modern Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and big car park – is expected to