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An creek so narrow you hardly got your feet wet separated a community for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of residents started documenting their history. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Telling the villagers who experienced the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

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

Historical Background

Even at its founding in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the very same tavern, attending the same church and enrolling their young ones to the same school.

Following WWII Split

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Russian troops installed wood stakes by the brook. For a year they occupied the whole hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to pull back across the creek. For a while, residents could still cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to display ID, even though each person knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The residents could continue to view each other by ascending hills, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “same to you” to a West German local who said her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

It was related to me accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated much of his professional career creating it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how what length of wall they wished to maintain. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian edge, near where a villager was able to flee in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the border was significantly strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are conserved together with a series of tableaux illustrating the most significant dates in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director enumerates the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to care for their produce; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but never the pair, in case they attempted to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but more than twice as many individuals (well over 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to visit every year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, the television series, a television program about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, cinema room and sizable car park – is expected to