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A stream so low you hardly got your ankles wet divided a settlement for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a partition. US troops dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and before their state had become one in 1990, a group of residents set about documenting their heritage. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely prepared. Telling the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals gathering in the same inn, going to the same place of worship and enrolling their children to the same learning center.

After the War Separation

Then came the World War II. The moment they came, the Russians installed timber poles by the creek. For a year they took over the entire community, establishing their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a period, residents could still cross over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to display identity papers, although each person understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could continue to view each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were banned. A female resident was put on a Stasi monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a West German villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

It was related to me narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his occupational time building it. Locals were consulted early on about how what length of barrier they wished to keep. They opted for a stretch on the western edge, near where a local resident managed to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Conserved Structures

Two guard towers are maintained in addition to a collection of exhibits illustrating the most impactful dates in the village’s history. As we move, the director details the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their fields; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but never both, in case they tried to flee. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but in excess of double the number people (well over 300) were killed attempting to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand visited each year, optical devices in hand, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and large vehicle area – is probable to