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An stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet divided a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own division was opened, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about memorialising their heritage. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Speaking to the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman split, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Origins

Right from its creation in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity never stood in the way of the residents socializing in the identical inn, attending the same place of worship and placing their young ones to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians installed wooden posts by the creek. For a year they took over the complete community, establishing their control center in a house on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a period, locals could continue to cross over, though as controls tightened they were forced to show identification, despite the fact that each person knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could still observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were banned. A local woman was added to a Stasi watch list for answering “back at you” to a West German local who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

I was told accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how how long a section wall they desired to keep. They selected a portion on the western edge, close to where one of their own succeeded to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the boundary was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

Two watchtowers are preserved alongside a collection of tableaux showing the most impactful moments in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the boundary. Farmers had to obtain special permission to care for their produce; the spouse could work the combine harvester but not the two, lest they attempted to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Background

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but over twice as many people (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. About 15,000 came to visit every year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a made-up community similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Current Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, cinema room and large parking lot – is probable to