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A brook so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of residents set about commemorating their heritage. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely ready. Speaking to the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which ripped households apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the quirk never stood in the path of the residents socializing in the same pub, going to the identical religious building and placing their young ones to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Division

Then came the second world war. The moment they came, the Russians installed timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the whole hamlet, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to withdraw across the brook. For a time, locals could still jump across, though as controls became stricter they were required to present identity papers, although each person knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could still view each other by climbing elevations, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a West German local who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his working life developing it. Villagers were polled in the initial phases about how how long a section wall they wanted to keep. They selected a portion on the Bavarian fringe, near where a local resident managed to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Installations

A pair of observation towers are maintained together with a set of exhibits depicting the most dramatic moments in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, Lebergen lists the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to tend to their fields; the partner could use the combine harvester but never the two, lest they tried to flee. Military personnel stood watch.

Larger Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but more than two times more persons (exceeding 300) died attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They neither endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the settlement became a kind of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit annually, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, led to new curiosity.

Modern Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and big vehicle area – is probable to