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An stream so low you scarcely got your feet wet separated a village for more than four decades. By an accident of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, pastures and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own barrier was breached, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a group of local people set about documenting their past. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Telling the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which pulled families apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

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

Historical Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family best known for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals drinking in the very same tavern, attending the identical place of worship and placing their kids to the identical school.

After the War Split

Then came the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians erected timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the entire village, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a period, residents could continue to cross over, though as limitations tightened they were forced to present identification, even though each person understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The villagers could continue to view each other by climbing hills, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was added to a Stasi monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian local who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life building it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how much barrier they wished to maintain. They selected a stretch on the west edge, near where a villager was able to get away in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of guard towers are maintained together with a set of exhibits illustrating the most impactful moments in the village’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Farmers had to obtain special permission to look after their crops; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but not both, for fear that they sought to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Context

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most frequently, but more than double the number people (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director reminds me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They neither endorsed the communist regime nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand visited annually, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a television program about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and big vehicle area – is likely to