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A stream so low you scarcely got your feet wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, pastures and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was marked first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people started documenting their heritage. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Speaking to the locals who experienced the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman split, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk did not stand in the way of the residents drinking in the same pub, visiting the same place of worship and placing their young ones to the same school.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the whole village, creating their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a period, residents could continue to hop over, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to present ID, even though all was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The residents could still view each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told accounts including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time building it. Residents were polled early on about how much wall they wished to preserve. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian fringe, near where a villager was able to flee in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the border was heavily reinforced.

Preserved Buildings

2 observation towers are conserved in addition to a series of displays showing the most impactful dates in the community’s past. As we stroll, Lebergen enumerates the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to look after their crops; the spouse could use the combine harvester but never the two, lest they tried to escape. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of double the number people (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or artisans, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to visit each year, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and big car park – is likely to