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A creek so low you barely got your ankles wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and before their country had unified again in 1990, a collection of villagers set about documenting their heritage. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Addressing the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped families asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled households apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Bygone Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity never stood in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the same pub, attending the very same place of worship and placing their kids to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the creek. For a annual period they seized the whole community, establishing their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw across the creek. For a time, villagers could continue to cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to show identification, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could still view each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were banned. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for replying “same to you” to a western resident who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a large part of his working life developing it. Locals were asked in the initial phases about how much wall they wished to preserve. They selected a stretch on the west perimeter, near where one of their own succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the border was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

Two guard towers are conserved together with a set of exhibits showing the most dramatic dates in the community’s history. As we walk, the director details the regulations: nobody could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required special permission to care for their fields; the husband or wife could operate the combine harvester but not the two, in case they tried to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Background

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most frequently, but more than double the number individuals (exceeding 300) died trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to dwelling in the ambiguous area between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They neither backed the socialist government nor resisted it, the director explains.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately 15,000 visited each year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a television program about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and large car park – is expected to