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An brook so narrow you barely got your ankles wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, pastures and stunning scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people began documenting their history. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Telling the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal division, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity never stood in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the identical tavern, going to the very same church and placing their children to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the creek. For a year they seized the entire hamlet, creating their command in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to retreat back over the creek. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as controls increased they were required to show ID, even though all was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side waving and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a western local who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated much of his occupational time building it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how much wall they wished to keep. They chose a portion on the western edge, near where a villager was able to get away in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the border was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Installations

Two guard towers are maintained in addition to a set of exhibits depicting the most significant events in the village’s past. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the rules: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to look after their crops; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Context

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but in excess of twice as many individuals (well over 300) were killed attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern tells me that 95% of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They neither supported the East German authorities nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. About fifteen thousand visited every year, binoculars in hand, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Modern Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is probable to