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An creek so low you hardly got your ankles wet split a village for over four decades. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers dubbed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers began commemorating their past. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely finished. Telling the villagers who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman split, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which tore families asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the same tavern, going to the identical church and enrolling their kids to the very same learning center.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they seized the entire hamlet, creating their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers convinced them to pull back back over the stream. For a while, villagers could continue to cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to display identification, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Intensification of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could still view each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was added to a Stasi monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

It was related to me accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Locals were asked early on about how what length of barrier they desired to preserve. They opted for a portion on the west edge, close to where a villager succeeded to escape in the dead of night with a ladder, after which the boundary was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

Two observation towers are conserved together with a set of displays showing the most dramatic dates in the community’s past. As we walk, the director details the regulations: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required special permission to care for their crops; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but never both, in case they sought to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Context

The border between West Germany and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most frequently, but more than double the number persons (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, the director explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand visited annually, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Modern Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and sizable car park – is probable to