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A stream so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet split a community for in excess of four decades. By an accident of landscape, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own division was breached, and even before their state had become one in 1990, a group of local people set about commemorating their history. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal split, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its creation in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals socializing in the identical tavern, going to the very same place of worship and placing their young ones to the same learning center.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russians erected wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the whole hamlet, setting up their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw back over the brook. For a time, villagers could continue to cross over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to display identity papers, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was put on a East German secret police surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a West German resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

I was told stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his occupational time building it. Residents were consulted early on about how what length of wall they desired to maintain. They selected a section on the west fringe, adjacent to where one of their own managed to get away in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the border was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

2 observation towers are maintained together with a collection of exhibits illustrating the most impactful events in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, the director lists the rules: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required particular approval to look after their crops; the husband or wife could work the combine harvester but not both, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers stood watch.

Broader Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but more than twice as many persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They nor did they backed the communist regime nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand came to see every year, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and large vehicle area – is probable to