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An brook so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet split a community for more than four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Months after their own wall was opened, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of local people set about documenting their past. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel split, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel split, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Context

Even at its creation in 1810, the village straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the residents drinking in the identical tavern, attending the identical religious building and sending their young ones to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Division

Then came the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the complete hamlet, creating their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to pull back across the creek. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as controls tightened they were forced to present ID, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could continue to see each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were banned. A local woman was added to a East German secret police watch list for answering “likewise” to a western villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his working life developing it. Residents were consulted early on about how what length of barrier they wanted to maintain. They chose a section on the west edge, adjacent to where one of their own managed to escape in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the frontier was significantly fortified.

Preserved Structures

2 observation towers are maintained together with a collection of tableaux illustrating the most impactful events in the village’s past. As we walk, Lebergen lists the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required particular approval to tend to their produce; the partner could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but more than two times more people (well over 300) died seeking to traverse it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their farms. They neither backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit annually, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is likely to