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A stream so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a settlement for over four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a group of residents set about memorialising their history. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely prepared. Speaking to the residents who lived through the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which tore families asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which tore families into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the very same pub, attending the identical church and placing their young ones to the same school.

After the War Split

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the brook. For a year they occupied the whole community, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a while, locals could still jump across, though as controls tightened they were forced to present identity papers, although all was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Measures

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could still observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “likewise” to a West German local who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard narratives like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Residents were consulted early on about how much wall they desired to maintain. They chose a section on the west fringe, close to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

Two observation towers are conserved alongside a collection of tableaux depicting the most dramatic events in the village’s history. As we move, Lebergen details the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required special permission to tend to their fields; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but not the two, lest they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but more than two times more people (well over 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of efforts to cross failed.

Community Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to see each year, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, film screening area and large parking lot – is probable to