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An stream so shallow you barely got your feet wet separated a settlement for over four decades of time. By an accident of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular views, 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 East, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own wall was opened, and before their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers started commemorating their past. The project is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display wasn’t quite finished. Telling the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which pulled households apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the residents socializing in the very same tavern, going to the very same place of worship and enrolling their kids to the very same school.

Post-War Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Russians installed wood stakes by the creek. For a year they seized the entire village, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a while, villagers could continue to jump across, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to present ID, despite the fact that everyone knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Border Controls

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The residents could still observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side waving and shouting were banned. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a western resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a large part of his working life developing it. Residents were polled at an early stage about how what length of barrier they wished to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where a villager was able to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the frontier was heavily fortified.

Maintained Structures

Two watchtowers are maintained alongside a series of displays illustrating the most impactful events in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director enumerates the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to look after their produce; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but not the pair, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the greatest, but in excess of twice as many people (exceeding 300) were killed trying to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. the director reminds me that 95% of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They neither backed the communist regime nor opposed it, the director explains.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. Roughly 15,000 came to visit each year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, film screening area and big parking lot – is likely to