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A brook so shallow you barely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for more than four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, pastures and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers started commemorating their past. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the identical inn, visiting the very same church and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

After the War Split

Then came the World War II. The moment they appeared, the Russians put up wood stakes by the brook. For a year they seized the whole hamlet, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a period, residents could still cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to display ID, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were banned. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian villager who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how what length of structure they wished to maintain. They chose a section on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of watchtowers are maintained alongside a collection of displays illustrating the most dramatic moments in the community’s chronicle. As we stroll, Lebergen enumerates the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required particular approval to look after their fields; the spouse could use the agricultural equipment but not both, in case they sought to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Larger Context

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but more than double the number persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a kind of destination. About fifteen thousand visited each year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a TV series about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Modern Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and large car park – is probable to