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A creek so low you scarcely got your feet wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a group of local people started commemorating their past. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Speaking to the residents who lived through the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel division, which tore families asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the quirk never stood in the way of the residents drinking in the very same tavern, going to the very same place of worship and sending their kids to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Russians erected timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they took over the complete village, creating their control center in a building on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to retreat across the stream. For a time, locals could continue to jump across, though as restrictions increased they were forced to present identification, although all understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The locals could still observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side waving and yelling were banned. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a West German resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard accounts such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his working life creating it. Villagers were polled in the initial phases about how much structure they wished to preserve. They selected a section on the western edge, close to where one of their own succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the border was significantly fortified.

Conserved Buildings

Two observation towers are conserved alongside a set of displays illustrating the most impactful dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen lists the restrictions: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their crops; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, in case they sought to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Background

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most frequently, but over twice as many people (more than 300) died trying to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by avoiding attention and caring for their land. They did not supported the socialist government nor resisted it, the director states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of destination. Approximately 15,000 came to visit every year, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new interest.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, movie theater and large vehicle area – is likely to