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A brook so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet split a village for more than four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers started commemorating their heritage. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely finished. Speaking to the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which tore households apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Bygone Context

Even at its creation in 1810, the community straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the locals gathering in the identical pub, visiting the very same religious building and sending their kids to the identical school.

After the War Division

Next arrived the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Russian troops put up wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the complete community, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a period, villagers could still cross over, though as controls tightened they were required to show identity papers, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could still observe each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and shouting were banned. One woman was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a West German villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his professional career creating it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how much barrier they wanted to maintain. They opted for a section on the west edge, near where a local resident was able to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the border was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

A pair of guard towers are maintained in addition to a series of tableaux depicting the most dramatic moments in the village’s chronicle. As we move, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Farmers had to obtain particular approval to tend to their produce; the spouse could work the combine harvester but never both, lest they tried to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Context

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but in excess of double the number people (more than 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between two belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a kind of site of interest. Roughly 15k came to visit every year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a television program about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, caused fresh interest.

Modern Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and sizable parking lot – is likely to