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A creek so shallow you barely got your feet wet split a settlement for over four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own wall was breached, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of local people began memorialising their heritage. The work is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not completely prepared. Addressing the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel split, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which pulled households asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Context

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family best known for giving all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the very same pub, going to the identical place of worship and placing their young ones to the same school.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. Immediately after they came, the Russians put up wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they occupied the entire hamlet, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a time, villagers could still hop over, though as controls tightened they were obliged to present identity papers, although each person understood who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Border Measures

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was erected, with mines, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could still see each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were banned. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I heard accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Locals were asked early on about how what length of wall they desired to preserve. They chose a portion on the west edge, near where a villager was able to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was heavily fortified.

Maintained Installations

A pair of guard towers are conserved alongside a set of exhibits depicting the most significant dates in the community’s history. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: nobody could approach 5km of the boundary. Rural residents required specific authorization to care for their crops; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but not the two, for fear that they attempted to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Broader Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the greatest, but over two times more people (well over 300) died seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. the director informs me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between two political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They did not backed the socialist government nor opposed it, the director states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to visit annually, optical devices in hand, to look – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Modern Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, cinema room and large parking lot – is likely to