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An creek so narrow you barely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for more than four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own division was opened, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a group of local people set about documenting their past. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely finished. Addressing the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an brutal division, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

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

Bygone Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for assigning all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk never stood in the path of the residents gathering in the very same tavern, going to the same place of worship and sending their kids to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the second world war. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they took over the entire community, creating their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces persuaded them to retreat back over the creek. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to display ID, even though all was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could still view each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “back at you” to a western local who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Development

I was told narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Locals were consulted at an early stage about how much barrier they desired to maintain. They chose a section on the Bavarian edge, close to where a villager was able to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Conserved Structures

A pair of guard towers are preserved in addition to a series of exhibits showing the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, Lebergen lists the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Farmers needed specific authorization to look after their crops; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but never the two, lest they attempted to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but more than two times more people (more than 300) were killed attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their land. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. About 15k visited every year, binoculars in their hands, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Current Changes

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, movie theater and big car park – is probable to