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A stream so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was marked first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their country had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people set about documenting their heritage. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely ready. Telling the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which pulled households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Context

Even at its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk did not stand in the way of the locals socializing in the very same tavern, visiting the same place of worship and sending their young ones to the very same school.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they took over the entire village, setting up their command in a house on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to pull back back over the creek. For a while, locals could continue to cross over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to display ID, although each person was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was erected, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The residents could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the east side waving and yelling were forbidden. One woman was added to a Stasi surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a West German villager who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Development

I was told stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his working life developing it. Locals were asked in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they wanted to preserve. They opted for a section on the west edge, adjacent to where a local resident managed to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was substantially fortified.

Maintained Installations

Two watchtowers are maintained alongside a collection of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s past. As we move, the director lists the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to care for their crops; the spouse could work the harvesting machine but never the pair, lest they attempted to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Context

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but over double the number people (exceeding 300) died attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They did not supported the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand visited each year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. 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 imaginary village like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, movie theater and big parking lot – is probable to