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A creek so narrow you barely got your feet wet split a settlement for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was marked first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own division was opened, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of residents started memorialising their history. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which tore relatives apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its men the name Heinrich and counting them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk never stood in the manner of the residents gathering in the very same tavern, going to the same church and sending their young ones to the same school.

Post-War Division

Then came the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Russians installed timber poles by the stream. For a year they took over the complete community, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a time, locals could still jump across, though as controls tightened they were obliged to display identity papers, even though each person understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The residents could still observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side signaling and yelling were banned. One woman was added to a East German secret police watch list for replying “likewise” to a western resident who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me accounts including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his working life building it. Villagers were asked early on about how much structure they wished to keep. They chose a portion on the western perimeter, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the frontier was heavily fortified.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of observation towers are maintained together with a set of displays depicting the most dramatic events in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed special permission to tend to their fields; the partner could use the combine harvester but not the pair, lest they attempted to flee. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number individuals (exceeding 300) died trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They did not backed the communist regime nor opposed it, the director states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit each year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and sizable parking lot – is likely to