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An creek so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a community for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own wall was opened, and before their country had unified again in 1990, a group of local people set about commemorating their past. The effort is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely ready. Addressing the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which pulled households asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Bygone Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk did not stand in the way of the residents socializing in the very same tavern, attending the identical church and sending their children to the very same learning center.

Post-War Split

Then came the World War II. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the creek. For a annual period they seized the entire village, creating their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to retreat back over the brook. For a while, locals could still cross over, though as controls increased they were obliged to present identity papers, despite the fact that each person knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could still view each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side waving and shouting were banned. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police monitoring list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian local who said her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a large part of his professional career creating it. Residents were polled at an early stage about how much structure they desired to preserve. They opted for a portion on the western perimeter, close to where one of their own succeeded to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the border was heavily fortified.

Maintained Buildings

Two observation towers are maintained together with a series of exhibits illustrating the most significant moments in the community’s chronicle. As we move, Lebergen enumerates the rules: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to care for their produce; the partner could work the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, in case they sought to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Background

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most, but over double the number persons (exceeding 300) died trying to pass over it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. About 15k came to visit annually, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to new curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and sizable car park – is expected to