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A brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a group of residents began documenting their past. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Addressing the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which ripped households asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals gathering in the identical pub, going to the identical place of worship and placing their young ones to the same learning center.

Post-War Split

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the creek. For a year they seized the complete hamlet, setting up their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a while, villagers could still cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to display ID, although all knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could still observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the east side waving and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a West German villager who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his working life developing it. Locals were asked in the initial phases about how much structure they desired to preserve. They chose a stretch on the western perimeter, close to where a villager managed to escape in the dead of night with a ladder, after which the border was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

Two guard towers are conserved in addition to a collection of displays illustrating the most dramatic moments in the community’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents needed particular approval to care for their produce; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but never the two, in case they attempted to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Background

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but over twice as many individuals (more than 300) died trying to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They neither backed the socialist government nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. About 15,000 visited annually, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and large parking lot – is likely to