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An stream so shallow you hardly got your feet wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers started memorialising their history. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite prepared. Speaking to the locals who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal split, which tore households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage best known for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk never stood in the manner of the residents socializing in the identical tavern, going to the identical religious building and sending their young ones to the very same learning center.

After the War Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they came, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the complete community, creating their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the brook. For a while, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were required to display identification, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could still see each other by ascending hills, but on the east side waving and yelling were banned. A female resident was added to a GDR intelligence monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his professional career developing it. Locals were asked in the initial phases about how much structure they desired to preserve. They selected a portion on the western perimeter, near where a local resident succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Installations

A pair of watchtowers are preserved in addition to a series of tableaux showing the most impactful dates in the community’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen lists the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers required special permission to care for their fields; the partner could use the combine harvester but never both, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the most, but over two times more people (well over 300) lost their lives trying to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Community Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of pilgrimage. About 15,000 came to visit annually, binoculars in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and big car park – is probable to