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An brook so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a community for more than four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people set about memorialising their history. The effort is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely finished. Addressing the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which pulled households apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which tore households apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Bygone Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for assigning all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the same pub, visiting the very same place of worship and placing their young ones to the very same educational institution.

After the War Split

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the entire village, creating their headquarters in a building on the western side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw across the creek. For a while, residents could continue to cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to display identification, although all knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Escalation of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was constructed, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side waving and calling out were forbidden. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Villagers were asked early on about how much structure they wanted to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the western fringe, near where one of their own managed to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Maintained Installations

Two guard towers are maintained in addition to a collection of tableaux illustrating the most impactful moments in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen details the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed particular approval to look after their crops; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but not the two, lest they attempted to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Larger Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but over twice as many people (well over 300) died seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They neither backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Interest

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of site of interest. Approximately 15,000 came to visit each year, binoculars in their hands, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

25 years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh curiosity.

Current Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and big parking lot – is likely to