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A creek so narrow you hardly got your feet wet separated a community for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own wall was breached, and even before their country had unified again in 1990, a group of villagers set about commemorating their past. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not entirely ready. Addressing the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped families asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which tore relatives apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the community cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most famous for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the way of the locals socializing in the identical inn, visiting the very same church and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

After the War Split

Next arrived the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians installed wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the entire village, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to withdraw across the stream. For a time, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were required to display identification, although all understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could continue to see each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side signaling and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a western villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career building it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how what length of wall they wished to preserve. They chose a portion on the west fringe, close to where one of their own managed to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of observation towers are preserved in addition to a set of displays illustrating the most dramatic dates in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, the director enumerates the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the border. Farmers required specific authorization to look after their crops; the husband or wife could work the harvesting machine but never the pair, for fear that they sought to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Broader Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but more than twice as many people (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between a pair of belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, the director explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of destination. About 15k came to see every year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a television program about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Modern Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and large parking lot – is likely to