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A stream so shallow you barely got your ankles wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own division was breached, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people started memorialising their heritage. The effort is close to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Addressing the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which pulled households apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which ripped households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most famous for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the same pub, going to the same religious building and sending their young ones to the very same school.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians erected wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the entire hamlet, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a while, villagers could continue to hop over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to show identification, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with mines, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could continue to view each other by scaling hills, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were forbidden. One woman was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a West German resident who said her “good new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his professional career developing it. Villagers were asked early on about how what length of barrier they wanted to maintain. They selected a portion on the west edge, close to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, subsequently the border was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Installations

2 observation towers are maintained in addition to a series of displays depicting the most dramatic dates in the village’s past. As we move, Lebergen enumerates the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to care for their crops; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, in case they attempted to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Larger Perspective

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the greatest, but more than two times more people (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k came to see every year, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary village resembling Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, movie theater and big parking lot – is likely to