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A stream so shallow you barely got your feet wet separated a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Mini Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents started memorialising their heritage. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Addressing the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an cruel separation, which ripped households apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which pulled households asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the residents gathering in the identical tavern, going to the identical religious building and enrolling their kids to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russians put up timber poles by the brook. For a twelve months they seized the whole hamlet, setting up their command in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to retreat back over the stream. For a while, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to display identification, even though all understood who they were, and to go back at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The residents could still view each other by climbing hills, but on the eastern side signaling and shouting were forbidden. A local woman was added to a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “back at you” to a western resident who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Locals were polled early on about how how long a section wall they wished to keep. They chose a stretch on the western fringe, near where one of their own succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the border was heavily reinforced.

Preserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are conserved alongside a set of displays depicting the most impactful dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen details the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to care for their fields; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but never the pair, for fear that they sought to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Context

The border between West Germany and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but in excess of double the number individuals (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of efforts to cross failed.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their land. They neither backed the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the village became a type of site of interest. About fifteen thousand visited every year, binoculars in possession, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and big parking lot – is probable to