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An creek so shallow you hardly got your feet wet divided a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of villagers set about documenting their heritage. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite prepared. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal division, which pulled families asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals gathering in the same tavern, going to the identical religious building and placing their young ones to the same school.

After the War Separation

Then came the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they seized the whole village, establishing their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to pull back back over the stream. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to show ID, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the eastern side signaling and calling out were banned. One woman was added to a Stasi watch list for responding “likewise” to a western resident who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time developing it. Locals were consulted early on about how how long a section wall they wished to maintain. They chose a section on the Bavarian fringe, near where a local resident succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

2 guard towers are preserved alongside a set of displays depicting the most significant moments in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to look after their fields; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but not both, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany stretched nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number people (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their land. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. About 15,000 came to visit annually, binoculars in hand, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Current Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, movie theater and sizable vehicle area – is expected to