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An brook so low you barely got your feet wet split a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Several months after their own wall was breached, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a group of residents started memorialising their past. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Telling the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk never stood in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the very same tavern, going to the identical church and enrolling their young ones to the same school.

Post-War Separation

Then came the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Russians installed wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they occupied the whole hamlet, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to pull back across the brook. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to present identity papers, although all knew who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with mines, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were banned. One woman was added to a Stasi surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a West German resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

I was told accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time creating it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how what length of wall they wanted to maintain. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian edge, near where one of their own succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, after which the boundary was heavily reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

2 guard towers are preserved in addition to a series of exhibits illustrating the most significant events in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the rules: no one could approach 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed special permission to care for their fields; the partner could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, for fear that they sought to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but more than two times more individuals (well over 300) died attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between a pair of belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their farms. They nor did they endorsed the East German authorities nor resisted it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a kind of site of interest. About 15k came to visit each year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a television program about a fictional hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, boutique, cinema room and large vehicle area – is expected to