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A creek so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a settlement for in excess of four decades. By an accident of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by pine forests, fields and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own division was opened, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a assembly of residents started memorialising their past. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely finished. Addressing the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal split, which tore families into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Bygone Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the quirk never stood in the path of the residents socializing in the identical tavern, visiting the same place of worship and placing their children to the same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they came, the Russians installed wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the complete community, creating their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to withdraw back over the brook. For a period, locals could still hop over, though as limitations tightened they were forced to present identity papers, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The locals could still view each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and calling out were banned. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I heard accounts such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were consulted early on about how much wall they wished to keep. They chose a portion on the western fringe, near where one of their own succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

2 guard towers are maintained alongside a series of tableaux depicting the most dramatic events in the village’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to look after their fields; the spouse could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances the two, for fear that they sought to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but more than twice as many persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director reminds me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between a pair of belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their land. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k visited annually, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, caused fresh interest.

Current Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and big car park – is likely to