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An creek so low you barely got your feet wet split a community for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own wall was breached, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of local people began commemorating their past. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Telling the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which pulled families asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Bygone Context

Even at its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the locals socializing in the very same tavern, visiting the identical church and enrolling their children to the same school.

Following WWII Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the whole hamlet, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers convinced them to withdraw back over the stream. For a while, residents could continue to jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were required to display identity papers, even though everyone knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could still view each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and shouting were prohibited. One woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

I was told stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his working life developing it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how how long a section structure they wished to keep. They chose a stretch on the western edge, near where a villager was able to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Preserved Structures

2 watchtowers are preserved in addition to a series of displays depicting the most significant moments in the village’s chronicle. As we move, Lebergen details the regulations: nobody could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to look after their fields; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but not the pair, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Larger Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but over double the number people (more than 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They neither backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of site of interest. About fifteen thousand came to visit every year, binoculars in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, resulted in new interest.

Modern Changes

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, cinema room and large car park – is likely to