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An stream so narrow you barely got your feet wet split a village for over four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of residents started memorialising their history. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not completely prepared. Addressing the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel division, which tore relatives apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

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

Historical Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the residents socializing in the identical pub, visiting the identical church and placing their children to the same school.

After the War Split

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the stream. For a year they occupied the complete hamlet, creating their command in a house on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to withdraw across the brook. For a while, locals could still jump across, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to show identification, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The villagers could still view each other by scaling hills, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me narratives like these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his working life developing it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how much barrier they wanted to maintain. They opted for a section on the Bavarian fringe, adjacent to where a villager managed to get away in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Installations

A pair of guard towers are maintained in addition to a set of exhibits showing the most impactful moments in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Farmers required special permission to care for their fields; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but never both, lest they sought to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Background

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but over twice as many persons (exceeding 300) died attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of efforts to cross failed.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They nor did they endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand visited every year, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a imaginary community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Modern Evolutions

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, film screening area and large car park – is likely to