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A creek so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a community for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of residents set about documenting their history. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Speaking to the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which pulled families apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the residents socializing in the very same tavern, going to the very same church and sending their children to the very same school.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the brook. For a year they occupied the entire community, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as limitations increased they were forced to present identification, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still see each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were banned. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for replying “likewise” to a West German villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

I was told narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his professional career creating it. Villagers were asked early on about how what length of wall they wanted to keep. They selected a section on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where a local resident managed to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Structures

Two observation towers are conserved in addition to a series of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic dates in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director details the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required particular approval to look after their fields; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, in case they attempted to flee. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but more than two times more persons (more than 300) died seeking to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. the director tells me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to visit every year, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and big vehicle area – is expected to