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An stream so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet split a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by pine forests, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of residents began documenting their past. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Telling the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an cruel split, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Context

Even at its creation in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the path of the residents drinking in the very same inn, going to the identical place of worship and sending their young ones to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Division

Then came the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops installed timber poles by the creek. For a year they occupied the entire hamlet, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans urged them to retreat across the brook. For a while, residents could still jump across, though as restrictions increased they were required to display ID, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The villagers could continue to see each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were banned. A female resident was placed on a Stasi watch list for replying “same to you” to a West German local who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Villagers were polled early on about how what length of barrier they desired to preserve. They chose a portion on the Bavarian edge, near where a villager succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the boundary was heavily fortified.

Preserved Structures

2 watchtowers are maintained alongside a collection of tableaux depicting the most impactful moments in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers needed special permission to look after their fields; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, in case they sought to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The border between Western Germany and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but over twice as many people (well over 300) died trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the village became a type of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to see each year, binoculars in their hands, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and big car park – is probable to