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An creek so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a community for over four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Months after their own wall was opened, and before their country had become one in 1990, a group of local people began commemorating their history. The work is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Addressing the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal division, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its creation in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk never stood in the way of the residents socializing in the same pub, going to the same church and enrolling their young ones to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the creek. For a year they occupied the whole hamlet, setting up their command in a house on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to withdraw back over the creek. For a time, residents could continue to jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were required to present identification, even though all was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The locals could still view each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were banned. A local woman was put on a Stasi monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a western resident who said her “good new year”.

Museum Development

I was told stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his professional career creating it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how what length of barrier they desired to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the west perimeter, adjacent to where a villager was able to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Structures

Two watchtowers are maintained alongside a series of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic dates in the village’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: no one could approach 5km of the boundary. Rural residents required particular approval to look after their produce; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but never both, lest they tried to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The border between West Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but in excess of two times more people (more than 300) died attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director tells me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They did not supported the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit annually, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Present-Day Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and large vehicle area – is likely to