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A brook so low you barely got your feet wet split a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own division was torn down, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers set about documenting their heritage. The work is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not entirely ready. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped households asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most famous for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity never stood in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same pub, visiting the same religious building and placing their young ones to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Division

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the stream. For a year they occupied the complete village, establishing their command in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to withdraw back over the brook. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as limitations increased they were obliged to show identity papers, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to return at after dark.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The locals could continue to observe each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were forbidden. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “back at you” to a Bavarian villager who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told stories including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his professional career creating it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they desired to keep. They selected a portion on the western perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the border was substantially reinforced.

Preserved Structures

Two observation towers are preserved together with a series of displays showing the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we move, the director lists the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to tend to their fields; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but not the pair, for fear that they tried to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but in excess of two times more persons (well over 300) lost their lives seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by avoiding attention and caring for their land. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a type of destination. About 15,000 came to visit every year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a imaginary community resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed interest.

Modern Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, cinema room and big vehicle area – is probable to