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A brook so narrow you barely got your feet wet divided a settlement for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising History

Months after their own wall was opened, and even before their state had become one in 1990, a collection of residents began documenting their heritage. The project is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite ready. Addressing the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which tore families apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the way of the residents drinking in the very same tavern, attending the identical church and placing their children to the same school.

Post-War Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops installed timber poles by the creek. For a annual period they took over the whole hamlet, setting up their command in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to pull back back over the creek. For a period, villagers could still cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to present ID, despite the fact that everyone knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still see each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a Stasi watch list for replying “likewise” to a West German resident who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I heard accounts including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a large part of his working life building it. Residents were asked early on about how much barrier they wanted to maintain. They opted for a section on the Bavarian edge, close to where one of their own succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Preserved Structures

2 watchtowers are conserved in addition to a collection of tableaux showing the most impactful dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we move, Lebergen details the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the border. Farmers required particular approval to look after their fields; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but never the pair, lest they tried to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Background

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but in excess of two times more people (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their farms. They neither endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. Roughly fifteen thousand visited each year, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a television program about a fictional village like Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is likely to