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An brook so narrow you barely got your ankles wet separated a community for over four decades. By an accident of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by evergreen groves, pastures and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of residents set about commemorating their heritage. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite finished. Speaking to the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal separation, which ripped households asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Background

Right from its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the very same pub, visiting the very same religious building and placing their young ones to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the entire hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a while, locals could still jump across, though as controls increased they were required to display ID, despite the fact that each person understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The residents could still see each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for answering “back at you” to a West German villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his professional career creating it. Locals were polled early on about how how long a section barrier they wished to maintain. They selected a section on the western fringe, close to where a villager succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, after which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Structures

Two guard towers are maintained in addition to a set of exhibits depicting the most dramatic events in the community’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to tend to their crops; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but not the pair, lest they attempted to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Background

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many individuals (more than 300) were killed trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director tells me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between a pair of belief systems by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They neither supported the East German authorities nor fought it, the director explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit every year, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to fresh curiosity.

Current Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and sizable vehicle area – is expected to