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An stream so narrow you barely got your ankles wet separated a community for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own division was torn down, and before their country had become one in 1990, a collection of local people started commemorating their past. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely ready. Speaking to the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel division, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

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

Historical Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk did not stand in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same pub, going to the identical church and sending their kids to the very same learning center.

After the War Separation

Then came the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the whole village, creating their command in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a time, villagers could still cross over, though as limitations increased they were required to display identification, although all knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Frontier Measures

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could continue to observe each other by scaling hills, but on the east side signaling and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a Stasi monitoring list for responding “same to you” to a West German local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how how long a section wall they wished to maintain. They opted for a section on the west fringe, near where one of their own succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Installations

Two watchtowers are maintained alongside a series of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic dates in the village’s history. As we walk, the director enumerates the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents required particular approval to look after their fields; the husband or wife could operate the combine harvester but never both, for fear that they attempted to escape. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but more than twice as many persons (well over 300) were killed trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor resisted it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a type of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k visited every year, binoculars in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the television series, a television program about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Modern Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and large car park – is probable to