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An creek so low you scarcely got your feet wet split a village for over four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own division was torn down, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a group of villagers began commemorating their past. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display wasn’t quite finished. Addressing the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel division, which pulled families apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Past Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the residents drinking in the identical inn, visiting the very same church and sending their young ones to the identical learning center.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the stream. For a year they took over the whole hamlet, setting up their command in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to retreat back over the stream. For a while, villagers could still cross over, though as controls tightened they were obliged to show ID, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The residents could still view each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side signaling and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a Stasi monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian local who said her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a large part of his working life creating it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they desired to maintain. They opted for a section on the west perimeter, close to where a villager was able to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, after which the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

2 observation towers are preserved in addition to a set of exhibits illustrating the most significant moments in the community’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the rules: no one could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their crops; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but never the two, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Background

The border between Western Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most, but over double the number individuals (well over 300) died trying to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of efforts to cross failed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They nor did they backed the communist regime nor fought it, the director explains.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a type of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit every year, binoculars in possession, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Present-Day Changes

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