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An brook so narrow you barely got your ankles wet separated a village for more than four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Several months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of residents set about commemorating their past. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Telling the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which tore relatives apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Origins

Right from its creation in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the quirk never stood in the path of the locals socializing in the identical pub, attending the same church and sending their young ones to the identical school.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they came, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the entire community, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a time, residents could still cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were required to show identity papers, although all knew who they were, and to go back at night.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a West German local who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a large part of his working life building it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how what length of barrier they wanted to keep. They chose a section on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where a villager succeeded to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the boundary was substantially fortified.

Maintained Buildings

2 guard towers are preserved together with a series of displays depicting the most dramatic dates in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director enumerates the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed special permission to look after their produce; the spouse could work the harvesting machine but not the two, lest they tried to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but over twice as many people (more than 300) died trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director informs me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They neither supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a type of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k came to visit annually, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

25 years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary village resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new interest.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and sizable car park – is expected to