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An brook so low you scarcely got your feet wet divided a community for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by pine forests, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own wall was breached, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a collection of local people began documenting their heritage. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Telling the locals who experienced the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an cruel separation, which pulled households asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the residents drinking in the identical inn, going to the very same church and sending their children to the very same learning center.

After the War Split

Then came the World War II. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they seized the whole community, creating their command in a house on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to withdraw across the creek. For a period, residents could still cross over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to show identity papers, although everyone understood who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still see each other by ascending hills, but on the eastern side waving and yelling were banned. A female resident was put on a Stasi monitoring list for replying “back at you” to a West German villager who said her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard accounts including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his working life developing it. Locals were polled early on about how much structure they desired to keep. They chose a section on the western perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was significantly fortified.

Preserved Structures

2 guard towers are maintained in addition to a series of tableaux showing the most significant moments in the community’s past. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents required specific authorization to look after their fields; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but not both, for fear that they tried to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of two times more individuals (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their farms. They neither supported the socialist government nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k came to visit each year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Current Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and large vehicle area – is probable to