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A brook so shallow you hardly got your feet wet split a community for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own wall was breached, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about commemorating their heritage. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely finished. Speaking to the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the oddity did not stand in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the identical inn, going to the identical church and sending their young ones to the very same learning center.

Post-War Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the entire community, establishing their headquarters in a house on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to pull back back over the stream. For a time, residents could continue to cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to show ID, although each person was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with mines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The residents could still see each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were forbidden. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a West German resident who said her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his professional career creating it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how what length of wall they wished to keep. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian edge, close to where a villager was able to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, after which the boundary was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of guard towers are preserved alongside a set of displays showing the most dramatic events in the community’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director details the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to care for their fields; the partner could operate the combine harvester but never the two, lest they sought to escape. Soldiers stood watch.

Broader Context

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but in excess of double the number persons (more than 300) were killed seeking to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They neither backed the communist regime nor resisted it, the director states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of site of interest. About 15,000 visited each year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is expected to