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A brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet split a village for more than four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own division was breached, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a group of local people started documenting their past. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Historical Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the oddity never stood in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the very same pub, visiting the same church and enrolling their young ones to the very same school.

Post-War Separation

Then came the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they took over the complete village, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans persuaded them to pull back back over the creek. For a period, residents could continue to hop over, though as limitations increased they were forced to display identity papers, although everyone was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Boundary Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could still observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side signaling and shouting were forbidden. A local woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a West German local who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I heard stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his professional career creating it. Residents were polled at an early stage about how what length of wall they desired to preserve. They selected a stretch on the western edge, close to where one of their own succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, after which the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Installations

Two guard towers are preserved in addition to a series of exhibits showing the most significant events in the village’s past. As we move, the director enumerates the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, in case they attempted to flee. Military personnel stood watch.

Wider Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but more than double the number persons (well over 300) were killed attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They did not backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit each year, optical devices in their hands, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Current Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and big vehicle area – is likely to