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An stream so low you hardly got your ankles wet divided a settlement for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by pine forests, meadows and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a group of local people began memorialising their heritage. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely ready. Speaking to the residents who experienced the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which tore relatives into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for bestowing all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the same pub, attending the same place of worship and placing their kids to the same learning center.

Post-War Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians installed wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they occupied the entire hamlet, setting up their command in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces persuaded them to withdraw back over the stream. For a while, villagers could continue to cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to show ID, although everyone knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with mines, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by climbing hills, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was added to a GDR intelligence monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian local who said her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his professional career creating it. Residents were asked early on about how much wall they wanted to keep. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian edge, near where one of their own managed to get away in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the boundary was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Installations

Two observation towers are maintained in addition to a series of tableaux showing the most dramatic events in the community’s history. As we stroll, the director details the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to look after their produce; the husband or wife could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they sought to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Context

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but more than two times more people (more than 300) lost their lives seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor fought it, the director explains.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. Roughly 15,000 came to see annually, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Modern Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and large vehicle area – is likely to