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An creek so low you scarcely got your feet wet divided a settlement for over four decades of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people started commemorating their heritage. The work is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely finished. Telling the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal division, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which tore households asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Bygone Background

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage best known for giving all its men the name Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the very same pub, visiting the same religious building and sending their young ones to the identical learning center.

After the War Split

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they came, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the complete hamlet, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw back over the creek. For a period, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were required to show identification, although each person understood who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side waving and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a western resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time building it. Residents were asked early on about how how long a section structure they desired to maintain. They chose a stretch on the west perimeter, close to where a villager managed to flee in the dead of night with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Installations

Two guard towers are conserved together with a set of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic moments in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director details the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed special permission to look after their crops; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but never the two, for fear that they attempted to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but over two times more people (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They neither backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of destination. Approximately 15,000 came to visit annually, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

25 years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional village like Mödlareuth, led to fresh interest.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and large vehicle area – is expected to