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An stream so low you barely got your ankles wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was breached, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of villagers started commemorating their history. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the locals socializing in the very same tavern, visiting the same place of worship and sending their young ones to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Separation

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they came, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the complete village, creating their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to pull back back over the creek. For a time, residents could still cross over, though as controls increased they were obliged to show ID, although everyone was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Border Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were banned. One woman was put on a East German secret police watch list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who said her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told narratives like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his professional career developing it. Residents were consulted in the initial phases about how much wall they wished to preserve. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian edge, close to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, subsequently the border was substantially fortified.

Preserved Buildings

2 observation towers are preserved together with a series of tableaux showing the most impactful dates in the community’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to tend to their produce; the spouse could work the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, lest they sought to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Context

The frontier between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most, but in excess of twice as many people (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to pass over it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They did not supported the socialist government nor opposed it, the director states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of site of interest. About 15,000 came to visit every year, binoculars in their hands, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional village like Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is expected to