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A stream so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a settlement for more than four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a group of local people started memorialising their heritage. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not completely finished. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel separation, which tore households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the way of the locals socializing in the very same inn, going to the identical place of worship and enrolling their kids to the identical school.

Following WWII Split

Then came the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Russians erected wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they took over the complete village, setting up their command in a house on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to retreat back over the brook. For a time, villagers could still jump across, though as controls tightened they were obliged to present identity papers, despite the fact that each person understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could still see each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side signaling and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a Stasi monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a West German villager who said her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his professional career creating it. Locals were consulted in the initial phases about how much structure they wanted to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the western fringe, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the boundary was significantly fortified.

Preserved Buildings

2 guard towers are preserved together with a set of tableaux showing the most dramatic moments in the village’s chronicle. As we move, Lebergen details the restrictions: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required special permission to look after their crops; the husband or wife could work the combine harvester but never the two, in case they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Perspective

The border between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but more than twice as many persons (more than 300) were killed attempting to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Lebegern tells me that 95% of escape attempts failed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of belief systems by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. Roughly 15k came to visit each year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Modern Changes

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is expected to