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A creek so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a community for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating 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 began commemorating their past. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Telling the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel split, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped households apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family best known for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk never stood in the way of the locals drinking in the identical pub, going to the same place of worship and sending their young ones to the identical educational institution.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the stream. For a year they occupied the entire village, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a time, residents could continue to jump across, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to show ID, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Border Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was constructed, with mines, tank traps and watchtowers. The residents could continue to see each other by scaling slopes, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were banned. A local woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for replying “likewise” to a West German resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Museum Creation

I was told accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career building it. Villagers were polled in the initial phases about how much barrier they wanted to keep. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where one of their own was able to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was substantially fortified.

Preserved Structures

2 guard towers are preserved alongside a series of exhibits showing the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s past. As we move, Lebergen details the regulations: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the border. Farmers needed special permission to tend to their crops; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, lest they sought to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Larger Background

The frontier between West Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but more than two times more people (exceeding 300) died attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They did not supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. Roughly 15,000 visited every year, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional village like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and large parking lot – is likely to