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A creek so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a village for more than four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, pastures and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

Several months after their own division was breached, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a group of local people started commemorating their history. The project is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely ready. Telling the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which pulled households apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Bygone Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the identical tavern, attending the identical place of worship and sending their young ones to the same educational institution.

Post-War Division

Then came the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Russians installed timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the whole hamlet, setting up their command in a house on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to withdraw back over the creek. For a time, locals could continue to cross over, though as limitations increased they were obliged to present identity papers, even though each person understood who they were, and to go back at evening.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with mines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The villagers could still view each other by scaling hills, but on the eastern side signaling and shouting were banned. One woman was put on a Stasi watch list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his working life developing it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how much structure they wanted to maintain. They selected a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where a villager was able to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the border was significantly strengthened.

Conserved Installations

2 guard towers are conserved in addition to a collection of displays showing the most significant dates in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to look after their crops; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, in case they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but more than two times more persons (well over 300) died seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They neither backed the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of destination. Roughly 15k came to visit each year, optical devices in hand, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a TV series about a imaginary community like Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and large vehicle area – is probable to