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A creek so low you hardly got your feet wet divided a village for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of residents started documenting their history. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely finished. Speaking to the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for bestowing all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the same tavern, going to the very same religious building and placing their young ones to the same educational institution.

After the War Separation

Then came the second world war. As soon as they came, the Russians installed timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the entire village, setting up their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to withdraw across the creek. For a while, locals could continue to jump across, though as restrictions increased they were forced to display identification, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could continue to observe each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “back at you” to a western resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his professional career creating it. Residents were asked early on about how much wall they wanted to maintain. They opted for a section on the western perimeter, close to where a villager managed to get away in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the boundary was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are maintained alongside a series of displays depicting the most significant events in the community’s chronicle. As we walk, the director details the rules: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their crops; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they sought to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but over two times more people (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director tells me that 95% of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They neither endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director states.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of destination. Approximately 15,000 came to visit every year, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in new interest.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, boutique, cinema room and big vehicle area – is likely to