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An brook so low you barely got your ankles wet divided a village for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

A few months after their own division was breached, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a group of residents began commemorating their past. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an cruel division, which ripped relatives apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the very same pub, attending the very same church and enrolling their children to the very same school.

After the War Split

Then came the second world war. As soon as they came, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the stream. For a year they took over the complete hamlet, setting up their command in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans persuaded them to pull back across the creek. For a period, locals could continue to jump across, though as controls tightened they were forced to show identity papers, even though everyone knew who they were, and to go back at night.

Increase of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with mines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The villagers could continue to view each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “likewise” to a western local who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Villagers were consulted early on about how how long a section wall they desired to keep. They opted for a section on the Bavarian fringe, near where one of their own was able to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, after which the border was substantially fortified.

Maintained Structures

A pair of observation towers are preserved together with a set of displays showing the most dramatic dates in the community’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the frontier. Farmers required particular approval to care for their produce; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, in case they attempted to escape. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Background

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but over two times more people (more than 300) died seeking to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand visited each year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a television program about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, caused fresh interest.

Modern Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is probable to