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An creek so low you hardly got your feet wet separated a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people began documenting their history. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Addressing the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Bygone Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the path of the residents drinking in the identical tavern, going to the identical religious building and sending their children to the same school.

After the War Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russians put up wooden posts by the creek. For a year they seized the entire community, creating their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw across the creek. For a time, locals could continue to jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to present identification, although each person knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could continue to view each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for answering “back at you” to a western local who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I was told narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his working life creating it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how what length of wall they desired to keep. They chose a portion on the west fringe, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are conserved together with a collection of tableaux illustrating the most significant dates in the community’s history. As we walk, the director lists the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required specific authorization to tend to their crops; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but not the pair, for fear that they tried to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Background

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but more than double the number individuals (exceeding 300) were killed trying to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern reminds me that 95% of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and tending to their fields. They did not supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. About fifteen thousand visited each year, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh interest.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and large car park – is likely to