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An creek so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for over four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, pastures and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of residents began commemorating their heritage. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which tore families apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most famous for assigning all its men the name Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the residents drinking in the very same pub, attending the very same religious building and placing their children to the very same school.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they came, the Russian troops installed wood stakes by the creek. For a annual period they took over the entire hamlet, creating their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to retreat across the stream. For a while, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to present identification, even though all was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The residents could still view each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “likewise” to a western villager who said her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard narratives like these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how what length of structure they wanted to keep. They opted for a stretch on the west edge, near where one of their own succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Conserved Installations

A pair of observation towers are preserved alongside a collection of exhibits illustrating the most impactful events in the village’s past. As we move, Lebergen lists the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed special permission to care for their crops; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but not both, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but over two times more people (well over 300) were killed seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of escape attempts failed.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between a pair of ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They nor did they endorsed the communist regime nor opposed it, the director explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of destination. Roughly 15k came to see each year, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Modern Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, film screening area and large car park – is expected to