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An creek so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a group of residents started commemorating their history. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Speaking to the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which pulled households asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Context

Even at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most famous for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and counting them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the residents drinking in the identical inn, going to the identical church and sending their children to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Russians erected wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the complete village, establishing their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to pull back to the other side of the brook. For a while, locals could still jump across, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to present ID, despite the fact that each person knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Frontier Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was built, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The residents could still see each other by scaling slopes, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were banned. A local woman was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “likewise” to a West German resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I was told stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Locals were consulted early on about how much barrier they desired to preserve. They opted for a portion on the western perimeter, close to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the border was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are preserved alongside a set of exhibits showing the most significant dates in the community’s past. As we stroll, the director details the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required specific authorization to tend to their crops; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, in case they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Background

The border between Western Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but over double the number people (more than 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between two political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They neither supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15,000 came to see every year, optical devices in hand, to look – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Modern Developments

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, store, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is likely to