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An brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a village for over four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

Months after their own division was opened, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a group of local people started documenting their heritage. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Speaking to the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an brutal division, which pulled households apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore households asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Past Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the very same pub, visiting the same place of worship and sending their kids to the identical educational institution.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russian troops installed timber poles by the brook. For a year they seized the entire community, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans convinced them to withdraw back over the creek. For a period, villagers could still cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to display ID, although everyone knew who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could still view each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side waving and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for replying “same to you” to a western resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time building it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how much wall they wanted to preserve. They opted for a section on the Bavarian edge, near where one of their own managed to get away in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Installations

Two watchtowers are conserved in addition to a set of displays depicting the most significant events in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, Lebergen details the rules: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to care for their produce; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but in excess of twice as many people (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the ambiguous area between a pair of belief systems by avoiding attention and caring for their farms. They neither endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a kind of destination. Roughly 15k came to see annually, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Modern Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and big parking lot – is likely to