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A stream so low you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a group of local people started documenting their history. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Addressing the locals who experienced the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which tore families asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Even at its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most famous for assigning all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals socializing in the same tavern, visiting the same church and enrolling their young ones to the very same school.

Post-War Division

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians erected wooden posts by the stream. For a year they took over the entire community, creating their command in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a while, residents could still jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were required to present identity papers, although all knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could continue to observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side signaling and yelling were banned. One woman was added to a Stasi watch list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard accounts including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they wanted to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the western edge, close to where a villager succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the border was substantially fortified.

Conserved Installations

A pair of watchtowers are maintained in addition to a set of exhibits showing the most significant moments in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required particular approval to look after their crops; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but not both, in case they sought to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but over twice as many persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. the director tells me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They nor did they backed the socialist government nor resisted it, the director explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit each year, optical devices in hand, to stare – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Modern Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and large car park – is probable to