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An stream so shallow you barely got your ankles wet divided a village for over four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Months after their own wall was breached, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a group of local people started commemorating their heritage. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not completely finished. Addressing the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which pulled families asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal split, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Past Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals gathering in the identical tavern, going to the very same church and placing their young ones to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Russians erected timber poles by the creek. For a year they seized the whole community, creating their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to withdraw across the brook. For a period, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to show identification, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still see each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were banned. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a western resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his professional career creating it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how much barrier they wished to preserve. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian edge, close to where one of their own succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was substantially fortified.

Maintained Structures

2 watchtowers are preserved in addition to a series of displays illustrating the most significant dates in the community’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required particular approval to look after their produce; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, lest they attempted to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Background

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the greatest, but over two times more people (well over 300) were killed attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who accommodated to living in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They neither endorsed the communist regime nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. About 15k came to see each year, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Current Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and large car park – is likely to