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An brook so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a settlement for over four decades. By an accident of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, fields and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a collection of residents started documenting their past. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely prepared. Addressing the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore families asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Bygone Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the residents drinking in the very same pub, going to the very same place of worship and enrolling their children to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the complete village, creating their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a period, villagers could continue to jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to show identity papers, although everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could continue to view each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. One woman was added to a Stasi monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian local who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time creating it. Residents were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they wished to keep. They chose a portion on the western fringe, near where a local resident succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the border was heavily fortified.

Maintained Structures

2 watchtowers are preserved alongside a series of exhibits depicting the most significant moments in the community’s chronicle. As we move, Lebergen lists the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents required particular approval to look after their produce; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but never the pair, for fear that they attempted to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Larger Background

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but more than twice as many individuals (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between two belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their farms. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit annually, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a fictional village like Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Present-Day Changes

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, movie theater and large car park – is likely to