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An stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet divided a village for over four decades. Due to a quirk of landscape, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents started commemorating their past. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Telling the residents who experienced the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped households apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its creation in 1810, the village straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the manner of the locals socializing in the identical tavern, visiting the identical religious building and sending their children to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russians erected wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they took over the whole hamlet, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to pull back back over the brook. For a time, residents could still cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to display identification, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could continue to see each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side waving and yelling were banned. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police watch list for replying “back at you” to a western local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

It was related to me accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time creating it. Locals were consulted at an early stage about how what length of wall they wanted to maintain. They selected a stretch on the western fringe, close to where a local resident was able to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Structures

2 watchtowers are conserved together with a collection of tableaux depicting the most impactful dates in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, the director enumerates the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the border. Farmers had to obtain special permission to care for their crops; the partner could use the combine harvester but never both, for fear that they attempted to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Context

The border between West Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but over two times more individuals (more than 300) were killed attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They did not backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a type of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand visited each year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

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

Current Changes

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, cinema room and big parking lot – is expected to