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A creek so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet split a village for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, fields and stunning vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few 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 heritage. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely ready. Telling the locals who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which ripped families apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Even at its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the locals drinking in the identical pub, visiting the very same church and enrolling their children to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they came, the Russians erected wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the complete village, creating their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to withdraw across the stream. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as controls tightened they were required to display ID, despite the fact that each person knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with landmines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were banned. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his professional career building it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they wished to maintain. They chose a section on the Bavarian edge, near where one of their own succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the boundary was heavily fortified.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of observation towers are maintained alongside a series of displays showing the most dramatic moments in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the border. Farmers needed particular approval to tend to their produce; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but not the two, in case they attempted to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Background

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the greatest, but over twice as many people (more than 300) were killed seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by avoiding attention and caring for their farms. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of site of interest. About 15k came to see annually, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

25 years after unification, the TV show, a television program about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, caused fresh interest.

Modern Developments

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, movie theater and big vehicle area – is expected to