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An creek so low you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for more than four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, fields and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own wall was opened, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people started memorialising their past. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Telling the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which ripped relatives asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the same tavern, going to the identical church and sending their kids to the same learning center.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces installed wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they seized the complete community, establishing their command in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were required to present identification, even though each person knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Escalation of Boundary Measures

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side waving and calling out were banned. One woman was added to a GDR intelligence watch list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his working life developing it. Residents were consulted early on about how how long a section structure they desired to keep. They opted for a stretch on the west perimeter, near where a villager succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, after which the border was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Installations

A pair of watchtowers are preserved alongside a set of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic moments in the village’s chronicle. As we move, the director lists the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the frontier. Farmers needed particular approval to look after their produce; the spouse could work the harvesting machine but not the pair, for fear that they attempted to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Larger Context

The border between West Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the greatest, but in excess of two times more persons (exceeding 300) died trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director reminds me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. Roughly 15,000 visited every year, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a television program about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and sizable car park – is expected to