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An brook so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for over four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of local people began documenting their heritage. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely ready. Addressing the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the identical tavern, going to the same church and enrolling their kids to the identical school.

Following WWII Division

Then came the World War II. The moment they came, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the creek. For a annual period they occupied the entire hamlet, establishing their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans urged them to pull back across the brook. For a time, residents could still jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to show identification, even though all knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could continue to see each other by ascending slopes, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were forbidden. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a western local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told stories including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his working life developing it. Locals were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wished to preserve. They selected a portion on the west edge, near where a local resident managed to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, after which the boundary was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Structures

2 guard towers are maintained alongside a collection of exhibits depicting the most dramatic dates in the community’s past. As we stroll, the director lists the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents needed special permission to tend to their fields; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, lest they sought to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Larger Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but more than two times more persons (more than 300) died attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director informs me that 95% of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a type of pilgrimage. About 15,000 visited annually, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Modern Evolutions

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