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An creek so narrow you barely got your feet wet divided a community for in excess of four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a group of residents started memorialising their past. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not completely prepared. Telling the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the locals gathering in the identical pub, visiting the very same place of worship and sending their kids to the identical school.

Post-War Split

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Russians put up timber poles by the brook. For a year they took over the entire hamlet, creating their control center in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw back over the creek. For a time, residents could still jump across, though as controls tightened they were forced to show identification, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could still see each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “likewise” to a western resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his working life developing it. Locals were consulted early on about how much wall they wanted to preserve. They selected a section on the west fringe, close to where a local resident succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of guard towers are preserved alongside a collection of exhibits depicting the most significant moments in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: nobody could approach 5km of the frontier. Farmers had to obtain special permission to tend to their crops; the husband or wife could operate the combine harvester but not the two, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Background

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most, but in excess of double the number persons (well over 300) were killed trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They neither supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a type of site of interest. About fifteen thousand came to visit annually, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Modern Evolutions

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, boutique, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is probable to