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A stream so low you scarcely got your feet wet divided a village for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents set about commemorating their past. 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 publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely prepared. Addressing the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal division, which tore families apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk never stood in the manner of the locals socializing in the identical inn, visiting the identical place of worship and enrolling their kids to the same school.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the creek. For a year they took over the entire community, establishing their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a time, villagers could continue to cross over, though as limitations increased they were forced to display identity papers, despite the fact that everyone knew who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could still observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were banned. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a western villager who said her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were asked early on about how how long a section barrier they wanted to maintain. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian edge, close to where one of their own managed to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was heavily fortified.

Conserved Installations

A pair of observation towers are conserved together with a set of exhibits depicting the most dramatic dates in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents needed specific authorization to look after their fields; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but never both, lest they sought to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most, but over double the number individuals (exceeding 300) died attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and tending to their land. They neither supported the socialist government nor fought it, the director explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit annually, optical devices in their hands, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and big vehicle area – is probable to