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A stream so narrow you barely got your ankles wet divided a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Several months after their own wall was breached, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a group of local people began memorialising their past. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely ready. Addressing the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which tore families asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage best known for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the residents drinking in the same inn, visiting the identical religious building and placing their young ones to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the World War II. The moment they came, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the brook. For a year they occupied the entire village, setting up their control center in a house on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to retreat back over the creek. For a time, villagers could still cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to display identification, although all was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could still see each other by climbing hills, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were banned. A local woman was added to a Stasi monitoring list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “happy new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard accounts such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a large part of his professional career building it. Villagers were consulted early on about how what length of structure they wished to keep. They selected a section on the Bavarian fringe, near where a local resident was able to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the border was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Installations

A pair of watchtowers are preserved together with a set of exhibits illustrating the most significant moments in the village’s past. As we move, Lebergen lists the rules: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed special permission to care for their crops; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but never the pair, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Larger Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but in excess of two times more persons (well over 300) died trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. the director tells me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adapted to residing in the grey zone between two belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They nor did they backed the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. About fifteen thousand came to visit each year, viewing tools in their hands, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed interest.

Modern Evolutions

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and large car park – is expected to