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A brook so low you barely got your feet wet split a community for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own division was opened, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers set about commemorating their past. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely ready. Speaking to the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel split, which tore families asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an cruel division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the oddity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals socializing in the identical pub, going to the identical church and placing their young ones to the identical educational institution.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they came, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the entire hamlet, creating their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans urged them to retreat back over the brook. For a while, locals could continue to jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to present identification, despite the fact that each person knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could still see each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were forbidden. A female resident was put on a Stasi monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a western local who said her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a large part of his working life building it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how what length of wall they desired to keep. They chose a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where one of their own managed to escape in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the border was substantially fortified.

Conserved Structures

A pair of watchtowers are maintained alongside a set of exhibits showing the most significant dates in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, Lebergen lists the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to look after their fields; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, in case they sought to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Context

The border between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but over double the number people (more than 300) were killed trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. About 15,000 came to visit annually, binoculars in their hands, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the television series, a television program about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and large vehicle area – is expected to