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A creek so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet split a community for over four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a group of villagers set about commemorating their past. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Addressing the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most famous for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the same pub, going to the same church and placing their kids to the identical educational institution.

After the War Split

Then came the global conflict. The moment they came, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the creek. For a year they took over the whole hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a period, locals could continue to hop over, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to present identity papers, although each person knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The villagers could still view each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side signaling and shouting were banned. A local woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his occupational time building it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how much structure they desired to keep. They selected a portion on the western fringe, near where a local resident succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the border was significantly fortified.

Preserved Buildings

A pair of guard towers are preserved together with a series of exhibits showing the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s past. As we move, the director details the restrictions: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Farmers required special permission to tend to their crops; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but never the two, lest they attempted to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Context

The border between West Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most frequently, but over twice as many people (exceeding 300) died trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They did not supported the communist regime nor resisted it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. About 15k visited every year, binoculars in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

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

Modern Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, boutique, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is likely to