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A creek so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a settlement for more than four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their country had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people set about documenting their heritage. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Telling the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the identical pub, attending the very same place of worship and sending their kids to the same learning center.

Post-War Division

Then came the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they occupied the entire village, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to pull back back over the stream. For a time, residents could still hop over, though as limitations increased they were forced to show ID, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Boundary Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a West German villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his working life creating it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how much wall they wished to maintain. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the boundary was significantly fortified.

Maintained Buildings

Two observation towers are conserved in addition to a set of tableaux depicting the most dramatic dates in the village’s chronicle. As we move, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to look after their fields; the partner could work the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, lest they attempted to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Larger Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but over twice as many individuals (more than 300) died attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. the director informs me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director explains.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k came to see each year, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to renewed interest.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and big vehicle area – is probable to