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A brook so low you barely got your ankles wet split a village for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was marked first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was opened, and even before their state had become one in 1990, a assembly of residents began commemorating their past. The project is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which pulled families into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Past Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the residents socializing in the identical tavern, visiting the same religious building and enrolling their kids to the same school.

After the War Split

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russians installed wood stakes by the creek. For a year they seized the entire hamlet, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to withdraw back over the creek. For a while, villagers could continue to cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to show identity papers, although everyone was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still see each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. One woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a western resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Development

I heard narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life developing it. Locals were asked in the initial phases about how how long a section wall they desired to keep. They chose a section on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own managed to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Installations

Two watchtowers are preserved alongside a collection of tableaux showing the most dramatic moments in the village’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents needed special permission to tend to their produce; the spouse could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances the two, in case they attempted to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but in excess of two times more individuals (exceeding 300) died seeking to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director informs me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their farms. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit every year, optical devices in hand, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Modern Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and large parking lot – is expected to