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A creek so shallow you barely got your feet wet divided a settlement for more than four decades. By an accident of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, fields and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Several months after their own division was breached, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a group of residents began memorialising their past. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely prepared. Addressing the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman split, which pulled households into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which pulled households apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Background

Even at its founding in 1810, the village straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most famous for giving all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the identical pub, attending the same church and placing their children to the same learning center.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they seized the whole village, setting up their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to withdraw back over the stream. For a while, villagers could still hop over, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to present identification, even though all understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was put on a East German secret police watch list for replying “likewise” to a Bavarian local who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how much wall they wished to keep. They opted for a section on the western perimeter, close to where a local resident succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was heavily fortified.

Maintained Structures

2 observation towers are maintained in addition to a set of tableaux depicting the most dramatic moments in the hamlet’s history. As we move, the director enumerates the rules: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents required specific authorization to tend to their fields; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, lest they attempted to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but more than twice as many people (exceeding 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director tells me that 95% of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They neither backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k came to see every year, viewing tools in their hands, to stare – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to fresh curiosity.

Modern Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, movie theater and big vehicle area – is expected to