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An creek so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a partition. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own wall was breached, and even before their state had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers began commemorating their heritage. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage best known for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk did not stand in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same tavern, going to the very same church and sending their kids to the very same school.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the whole hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces persuaded them to retreat across the creek. For a while, residents could still jump across, though as limitations increased they were required to present ID, despite the fact that everyone understood who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could continue to observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for answering “back at you” to a West German villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his occupational time building it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they wanted to maintain. They selected a stretch on the west edge, close to where one of their own was able to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Conserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are preserved alongside a set of displays illustrating the most impactful dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we move, the director details the rules: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Farmers needed particular approval to look after their produce; the partner could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, lest they attempted to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The border between West Germany and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most, but in excess of twice as many people (exceeding 300) died seeking to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They neither supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of pilgrimage. Roughly 15,000 visited every year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a TV series about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, film screening area and big parking lot – is expected to