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An brook so narrow you barely got your ankles wet split a community for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own division was breached, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents set about memorialising their history. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not entirely prepared. Telling the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which pulled relatives apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were observers of an inhuman split, which ripped families apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the residents drinking in the identical pub, going to the identical place of worship and placing their children to the same learning center.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the brook. For a year they took over the complete community, setting up their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to withdraw across the brook. For a while, villagers could continue to cross over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to show identity papers, even though each person knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could still observe each other by scaling hills, but on the eastern side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian local who greeted her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me stories including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his working life building it. Residents were consulted early on about how how long a section structure they desired to maintain. They chose a portion on the Bavarian edge, close to where one of their own managed to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Preserved Structures

2 observation towers are preserved together with a collection of displays illustrating the most significant events in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, the director details the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to look after their fields; the spouse could use the agricultural equipment but not the pair, lest they sought to make a run for it. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Context

The frontier between West Germany and the GDR stretched nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but over two times more persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their land. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand visited every year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Present-Day Changes

The opening of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and large car park – is likely to