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A creek so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of residents began memorialising their history. The work is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Addressing the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which ripped households asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk never stood in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the identical inn, going to the very same place of worship and enrolling their kids to the very same school.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they took over the entire village, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a period, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations tightened they were forced to show identification, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The residents could still observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were banned. A local woman was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a West German local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I heard accounts including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his professional career building it. Residents were asked early on about how much barrier they wished to maintain. They selected a section on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where a villager managed to flee in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the border was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Structures

2 guard towers are maintained together with a set of exhibits depicting the most impactful events in the village’s history. As we stroll, the director details the rules: no one could approach 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to look after their fields; the husband or wife could work the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, lest they tried to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but in excess of double the number individuals (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They did not backed the communist regime nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. Roughly 15,000 came to visit every year, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is expected to