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A brook so low you scarcely got your feet wet separated a settlement for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a collection of residents set about commemorating their heritage. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which ripped households into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which tore households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most famous for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the peculiarity never stood in the path of the locals socializing in the very same tavern, attending the same place of worship and enrolling their kids to the identical school.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they came, the Soviet forces installed wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they took over the complete community, creating their headquarters in a house on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to withdraw across the brook. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to present identity papers, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the east side waving and calling out were prohibited. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian local who said her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard narratives like these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his occupational time developing it. Locals were consulted early on about how what length of wall they wished to preserve. They chose a portion on the Bavarian fringe, near where a local resident managed to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Installations

Two watchtowers are conserved alongside a series of tableaux depicting the most impactful dates in the community’s history. As we stroll, the director enumerates the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to care for their produce; the husband or wife could operate the combine harvester but never the pair, lest they tried to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Broader Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the greatest, but in excess of two times more individuals (more than 300) lost their lives seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to dwelling in the grey zone between two political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a type of destination. About 15k came to see every year, binoculars in hand, to look – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a television program about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, movie theater and big parking lot – is probable to