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An stream so shallow you hardly got your feet wet separated a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a collection of local people began memorialising their heritage. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite ready. Addressing the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped households apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Past Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the residents gathering in the identical pub, going to the identical place of worship and enrolling their kids to the very same learning center.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Russians erected timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the whole village, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to pull back across the creek. For a while, villagers could continue to jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to display identification, although all understood who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Border Controls

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were banned. A local woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

It was related to me accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his working life developing it. Locals were polled early on about how much barrier they wanted to maintain. They chose a stretch on the west edge, near where a villager succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the border was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Installations

Two watchtowers are preserved in addition to a series of exhibits depicting the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, the director lists the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents needed specific authorization to look after their produce; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, in case they tried to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but in excess of double the number persons (more than 300) died attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between two political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to visit each year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Present-Day Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and sizable vehicle area – is likely to