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An creek so low you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving History

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people began commemorating their heritage. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not completely finished. Addressing the villagers who experienced the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped households into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which tore families apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most famous for assigning all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the path of the residents drinking in the same inn, visiting the very same church and enrolling their kids to the same school.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they came, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the brook. For a year they took over the entire village, setting up their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a while, locals could still hop over, though as controls tightened they were obliged to display identification, although all was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a West German villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I heard stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a large part of his working life creating it. Residents were polled at an early stage about how much structure they wished to keep. They selected a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, near where one of their own succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Installations

A pair of watchtowers are preserved alongside a set of displays illustrating the most dramatic dates in the village’s past. As we stroll, Lebergen enumerates the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required special permission to tend to their fields; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but not the two, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Soldiers stood watch.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but in excess of twice as many persons (well over 300) lost their lives seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They neither backed the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. About 15k came to see every year, binoculars in hand, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional village like Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Current Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and big parking lot – is probable to