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An brook so low you hardly got your feet wet split a village for over four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their country had unified again in 1990, a group of local people began commemorating their past. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely prepared. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal split, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Background

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most famous for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the residents socializing in the identical inn, visiting the same church and placing their children to the same learning center.

Following WWII Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russians erected timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they seized the whole village, setting up their command in a building on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a period, locals could continue to cross over, though as limitations tightened they were forced to present identity papers, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with mines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side signaling and shouting were banned. A female resident was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for answering “back at you” to a West German local who wished her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his occupational time creating it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how much barrier they desired to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the west fringe, near where a villager succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the border was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Structures

2 guard towers are maintained together with a collection of tableaux showing the most significant events in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed specific authorization to look after their fields; the partner could work the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, for fear that they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but in excess of two times more people (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the grey zone between two belief systems by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor resisted it, the director states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of site of interest. Roughly 15,000 visited annually, optical devices in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a imaginary hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Modern Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and large parking lot – is likely to