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A stream so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a village for over four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own wall was opened, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of villagers set about commemorating their history. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk never stood in the path of the locals drinking in the very same tavern, attending the same church and sending their young ones to the very same school.

Post-War Division

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Russians put up wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the entire hamlet, establishing their control center in a house on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to pull back to the other side of the brook. For a period, residents could still cross over, though as controls became stricter they were required to show identification, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Controls

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by climbing hills, but on the east side waving and yelling were forbidden. A local woman was added to a East German secret police watch list for replying “back at you” to a western villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

I heard stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his working life building it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how how long a section structure they wished to keep. They selected a stretch on the west perimeter, close to where a villager managed to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Preserved Buildings

Two observation towers are conserved in addition to a collection of displays depicting the most impactful events in the village’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to care for their produce; the partner could work the harvesting machine but not both, for fear that they tried to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Context

The boundary between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the greatest, but in excess of two times more individuals (more than 300) were killed trying to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of efforts to cross failed.

Hamlet Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They did not backed the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a kind of destination. About 15,000 came to visit each year, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Current Changes

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is likely to