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A brook so low you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a community for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own division was breached, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people set about documenting their past. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the villagers who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel split, which tore families asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the village straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for assigning all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the peculiarity never stood in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the very same inn, going to the very same religious building and sending their kids to the identical learning center.

After the War Separation

Then came the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Russians put up wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the complete community, creating their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans persuaded them to retreat back over the brook. For a period, locals could continue to jump across, though as controls became stricter they were forced to present identification, although all was aware who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could still view each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side signaling and yelling were prohibited. One woman was placed on a East German secret police monitoring list for responding “back at you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his occupational time building it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how what length of barrier they desired to keep. They chose a stretch on the west perimeter, close to where one of their own succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the boundary was heavily reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

Two observation towers are maintained alongside a series of displays illustrating the most impactful dates in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents needed special permission to tend to their produce; the partner could work the combine harvester but not the pair, in case they sought to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Context

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but more than double the number persons (well over 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of efforts to cross failed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their farms. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand visited every year, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a television program about a fictional village like Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Current Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and big parking lot – is probable to