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An stream so low you hardly got your feet wet split a community for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a group of local people began documenting their past. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely prepared. Telling the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which pulled relatives apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family best known for bestowing all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity never stood in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the same tavern, visiting the same religious building and placing their kids to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they took over the whole community, setting up their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a time, villagers could continue to cross over, though as controls tightened they were obliged to display ID, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Escalation of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The locals could still see each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were banned. One woman was put on a Stasi surveillance list for answering “likewise” to a West German villager who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard accounts including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Residents were polled at an early stage about how how long a section wall they wished to maintain. They chose a section on the west edge, close to where a villager was able to flee in the dead of night with a scaling tool, after which the border was heavily reinforced.

Preserved Installations

A pair of observation towers are maintained together with a set of tableaux illustrating the most significant dates in the community’s history. As we walk, Lebergen lists the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to tend to their fields; the partner could use the harvesting machine but not the two, lest they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Broader Background

The border between West Germany and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but over twice as many individuals (well over 300) lost their lives trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They did not backed the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. About 15,000 visited annually, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, store, cinema room and sizable car park – is likely to