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A stream so low you scarcely got your ankles wet split a village for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, pastures and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops called it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers began memorialising their heritage. The project is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which tore families apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman split, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Background

Right from its creation in 1810, the community straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the manner of the locals socializing in the very same inn, visiting the same religious building and placing their children to the same educational institution.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they took over the entire village, creating their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw back over the stream. For a while, locals could continue to cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to present ID, even though each person was aware who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The residents could continue to see each other by scaling hills, but on the east side signaling and shouting were banned. A female resident was added to a East German secret police watch list for replying “same to you” to a West German resident who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Locals were asked early on about how much structure they wished to maintain. They selected a section on the western fringe, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to escape in the dead of night with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Structures

A pair of observation towers are maintained alongside a series of displays showing the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, the director details the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers required special permission to care for their crops; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, lest they tried to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Larger Perspective

The border between Western Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but in excess of twice as many people (more than 300) died trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Lebegern tells me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who adapted to living in the grey zone between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They neither supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k came to visit each year, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, caused new curiosity.

Modern Changes

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, movie theater and large parking lot – is probable to