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A stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a village for over four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a wall. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own division was torn down, and before their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of residents began memorialising their heritage. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely finished. Speaking to the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel division, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Background

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the residents socializing in the identical tavern, attending the same place of worship and enrolling their children to the same learning center.

Post-War Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the creek. For a year they occupied the entire community, establishing their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to retreat across the brook. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were forced to show ID, even though each person knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The villagers could still view each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were forbidden. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “likewise” to a West German resident who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told narratives including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his working life creating it. Villagers were consulted early on about how much wall they wished to preserve. They chose a section on the Bavarian fringe, near where a local resident was able to get away in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Installations

Two observation towers are preserved together with a set of displays depicting the most significant events in the community’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents required specific authorization to care for their produce; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, in case they attempted to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Larger Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the greatest, but more than two times more persons (more than 300) died seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by avoiding attention and tending to their land. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of destination. About 15k came to see every year, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, the television series, a television program about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh curiosity.

Modern Changes

The opening of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and big car park – is likely to