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An brook so narrow you hardly got your feet wet separated a settlement for in excess of four decades. By an accident of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own division was torn down, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a assembly of residents started commemorating their heritage. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth 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 the first part of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Speaking to the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which tore families asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Past Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the very same inn, visiting the same place of worship and placing their kids to the identical learning center.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians installed wooden posts by the creek. For a year they occupied the complete community, establishing their headquarters in a house on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a while, locals could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were forced to show identity papers, although everyone was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The residents could continue to see each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side waving and shouting were banned. One woman was placed on a East German secret police watch list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “happy new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his professional career creating it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how much wall they wanted to maintain. They chose a section on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

2 guard towers are maintained in addition to a collection of displays illustrating the most significant events in the community’s past. As we stroll, Lebergen lists the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to care for their produce; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but never the two, for fear that they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but over double the number persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by avoiding attention and caring for their land. They neither supported the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. Roughly 15k came to see every year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Modern Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, movie theater and large car park – is expected to