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A creek so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet split a settlement for over four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a group of local people started documenting their history. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which tore households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Bygone Background

Right from its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the residents drinking in the very same pub, visiting the very same place of worship and placing their children to the very same learning center.

Post-War Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces put up timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the entire community, setting up their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a while, villagers could continue to jump across, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to display identification, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could continue to observe each other by scaling hills, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a western resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his professional career building it. Residents were polled in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they wished to keep. They chose a portion on the Bavarian fringe, near where one of their own succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, subsequently the boundary was heavily fortified.

Conserved Installations

Two observation towers are conserved in addition to a set of exhibits depicting the most impactful dates in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, the director enumerates the rules: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to care for their produce; the spouse could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, lest they sought to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but more than two times more people (more than 300) died seeking to traverse it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by avoiding attention and caring for their farms. They neither supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand came to see every year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and big parking lot – is likely to