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An brook so shallow you barely got your feet wet separated a community for over four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of residents started memorialising their past. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Telling the locals who experienced the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled households apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Past Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the very same inn, visiting the identical place of worship and placing their young ones to the same educational institution.

After the War Division

Next arrived the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces put up timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the complete village, creating their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to pull back to the other side of the brook. For a while, residents could continue to cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to present ID, although each person knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with mines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could still observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Creation

I was told stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his professional career building it. Locals were polled early on about how what length of wall they desired to keep. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, near where a villager succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the border was significantly reinforced.

Preserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are preserved in addition to a collection of tableaux showing the most impactful events in the community’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed special permission to care for their crops; the partner could use the combine harvester but not the two, for fear that they attempted to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Context

The border between West Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but more than double the number individuals (exceeding 300) were killed trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They neither supported the East German authorities nor fought it, the director explains.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Approximately 15,000 came to see every year, viewing tools in their hands, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and sizable vehicle area – is expected to