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An stream so narrow you barely got your ankles wet divided a village for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was established first by a enclosure and then by a partition. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a group of villagers began commemorating their history. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely ready. Speaking to the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which tore relatives asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

Past Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk never stood in the way of the residents drinking in the identical inn, visiting the identical church and sending their children to the identical learning center.

Post-War Split

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they took over the whole community, creating their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans convinced them to pull back back over the creek. For a time, locals could still jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to present identity papers, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side signaling and yelling were forbidden. One woman was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time building it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how much wall they wished to maintain. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian fringe, close to where a local resident was able to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the border was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Installations

Two watchtowers are maintained in addition to a series of tableaux depicting the most significant dates in the village’s history. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to tend to their crops; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but not the two, in case they tried to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Wider Context

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but in excess of two times more people (more than 300) were killed attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and tending to their farms. They did not supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. About 15k came to see annually, optical devices in possession, to look – 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 unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, film screening area and big parking lot – is likely to