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An brook so low you barely got your feet wet divided a village for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people began documenting their past. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not completely finished. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which ripped families apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Context

Even at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the same tavern, visiting the very same religious building and enrolling their children to the very same school.

After the War Division

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the complete community, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to retreat across the creek. For a period, villagers could still jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to show identity papers, even though each person knew who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The residents could continue to see each other by scaling hills, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. A local woman was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian local who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I heard narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his working life building it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how much wall they wanted to maintain. They opted for a portion on the west perimeter, close to where a villager managed to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the boundary was substantially reinforced.

Preserved Installations

A pair of observation towers are preserved together with a series of tableaux showing the most significant events in the village’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to care for their crops; the husband or wife could operate the combine harvester but never the pair, for fear that they tried to flee. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most, but over twice as many people (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They did not backed the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the village became a kind of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit each year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a television program about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Modern Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and big vehicle area – is probable to