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An brook so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet split a community for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a partition. United States military personnel nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers started documenting their past. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for giving all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same tavern, attending the same religious building and sending their children to the same educational institution.

After the War Split

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Russians erected wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the entire community, establishing their headquarters in a building on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans urged them to retreat back over the brook. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to display identification, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the east side signaling and shouting were prohibited. One woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time building it. Villagers were asked early on about how how long a section barrier they desired to preserve. They chose a section on the western fringe, adjacent to where one of their own managed to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the boundary was heavily fortified.

Maintained Installations

A pair of observation towers are preserved in addition to a set of displays depicting the most dramatic dates in the village’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to look after their fields; the husband or wife could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they tried to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Background

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many individuals (well over 300) died attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the ambiguous area between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. Roughly 15k came to visit every year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after unification, the TV show, a television program about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Present-Day Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is expected to