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An creek so narrow you barely got your ankles wet separated a village for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, meadows and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and before their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers began documenting their past. 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 officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel division, which ripped households into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the identical inn, attending the very same religious building and sending their young ones to the same learning center.

Post-War Split

Subsequently occurred the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Russian troops put up wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the whole community, establishing their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as limitations increased they were obliged to show ID, although each person knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The residents could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. A local woman was added to a Stasi watch list for responding “back at you” to a West German local who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his occupational time building it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how much barrier they wanted to maintain. They chose a portion on the Bavarian edge, close to where a villager managed to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, after which the boundary was substantially strengthened.

Maintained Installations

2 guard towers are conserved together with a series of displays depicting the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, the director enumerates the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required particular approval to tend to their crops; the partner could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but over two times more persons (more than 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the grey zone between two belief systems by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They neither endorsed the communist regime nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of destination. Approximately 15k came to visit each year, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Present-Day Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and large parking lot – is probable to