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A brook so low you barely got your feet wet split a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents began memorialising their history. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the very same inn, attending the identical place of worship and enrolling their kids to the identical school.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the second world war. The moment they came, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the whole hamlet, setting up their command in a house on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a time, locals could continue to jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to show identification, even though all knew who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could continue to observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were prohibited. One woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for responding “likewise” to a western villager who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

I heard stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how how long a section structure they wished to maintain. They chose a section on the western perimeter, close to where a local resident was able to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are maintained alongside a collection of tableaux showing the most dramatic dates in the village’s history. As we walk, the director details the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to look after their fields; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but not the two, in case they sought to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many individuals (well over 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director reminds me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their fields. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit every year, viewing tools in their hands, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Modern Evolutions

The opening of the new museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and large car park – is expected to