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An creek so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers set about memorialising their heritage. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Addressing the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which tore households apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

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

Bygone Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the identical tavern, visiting the same religious building and sending their children to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they took over the entire hamlet, setting up their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to withdraw across the stream. For a period, locals could still jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to show identification, despite the fact that everyone understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Border Measures

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could still see each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and shouting were banned. A female resident was added to a Stasi surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a western local who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Residents were consulted early on about how what length of structure they desired to preserve. They opted for a section on the western perimeter, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, subsequently the boundary was heavily reinforced.

Preserved Buildings

Two observation towers are maintained alongside a series of exhibits depicting the most significant dates in the village’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to care for their fields; the husband or wife could work the harvesting machine but never both, lest they tried to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most frequently, but more than double the number individuals (exceeding 300) died attempting to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They nor did they endorsed the communist regime nor resisted it, the director explains.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of destination. About 15k came to visit annually, binoculars in their hands, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is probable to