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An brook so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet split a village for over four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

Several months after their own wall was opened, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of residents set about memorialising their history. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Bygone Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most famous for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the oddity was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the same tavern, going to the same church and enrolling their children to the very same school.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they took over the entire hamlet, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw across the stream. For a while, locals could continue to hop over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to present identification, although everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. One woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for replying “back at you” to a western villager who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

I heard narratives like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Residents were asked early on about how much structure they wanted to maintain. They opted for a section on the western fringe, close to where a local resident managed to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the boundary was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

Two guard towers are maintained alongside a collection of tableaux depicting the most dramatic dates in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen lists the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers required special permission to care for their fields; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but not the pair, lest they tried to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but over twice as many individuals (exceeding 300) died trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of destination. Roughly 15,000 visited annually, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after unification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, caused new curiosity.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and sizable car park – is probable to