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An brook so low you hardly got your feet wet divided a community for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people set about memorialising their heritage. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Speaking to the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which tore relatives into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which tore families asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk did not stand in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the identical inn, going to the same church and placing their children to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the entire hamlet, setting up their headquarters in a house on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to retreat across the brook. For a while, locals could still cross over, though as controls increased they were obliged to display identification, even though everyone understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could still see each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was put on a East German secret police watch list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a large part of his professional career developing it. Locals were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of wall they wanted to keep. They opted for a section on the western perimeter, near where one of their own was able to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the border was significantly reinforced.

Preserved Installations

Two guard towers are maintained alongside a series of exhibits depicting the most significant moments in the community’s past. As we walk, the director details the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to care for their crops; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, in case they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but over twice as many people (exceeding 300) were killed trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They neither supported the socialist government nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a kind of destination. Roughly 15k came to visit each year, optical devices in hand, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh interest.

Current Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and large car park – is expected to