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A brook so shallow you barely got your ankles wet separated a community for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and stunning scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers set about documenting their past. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show wasn’t quite finished. Telling the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which pulled households asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel division, which ripped families apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Context

Even at its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the path of the residents drinking in the very same tavern, attending the same religious building and placing their children to the same learning center.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces installed wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they took over the whole community, setting up their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw across the creek. For a while, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were required to present identification, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with mines, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still view each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was added to a Stasi monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a West German resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life creating it. Residents were polled early on about how how long a section wall they desired to keep. They selected a stretch on the west fringe, close to where a local resident managed to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, after which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

2 observation towers are preserved in addition to a set of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic moments in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents needed special permission to tend to their fields; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but over double the number persons (well over 300) died trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the grey zone between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They did not backed the socialist government nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. About 15k visited annually, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Modern Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and large parking lot – is likely to