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A stream so low you hardly got your feet wet separated a community for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Months after their own division was breached, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a group of local people set about memorialising their history. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite finished. Speaking to the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal division, which pulled families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel split, which ripped families asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity did not stand in the path of the residents drinking in the identical tavern, attending the very same place of worship and sending their kids to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Separation

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Russians erected timber poles by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the whole hamlet, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to withdraw back over the brook. For a while, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to display identity papers, even though everyone understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still see each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a western villager who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I heard stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his professional career creating it. Residents were consulted early on about how how long a section structure they desired to maintain. They chose a section on the western edge, near where a villager was able to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, after which the border was substantially fortified.

Maintained Structures

Two watchtowers are preserved alongside a series of exhibits illustrating the most impactful moments in the village’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Farmers required special permission to look after their crops; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they tried to escape. Military personnel stood watch.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but over twice as many individuals (exceeding 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. About 15k came to see every year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, cinema room and large vehicle area – is likely to