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A brook so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a settlement for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, pastures and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a group of residents started memorialising their past. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Addressing the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were observers of an cruel division, which tore families into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity did not stand in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the very same tavern, visiting the very same religious building and enrolling their children to the identical educational institution.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they appeared, the Russians erected wooden posts by the brook. For a year they occupied the entire community, establishing their control center in a house on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a while, residents could still jump across, though as restrictions increased they were forced to present identification, although each person knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with explosives, tank traps and watchtowers. The villagers could continue to observe each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a West German local who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were polled early on about how what length of wall they desired to maintain. They selected a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where a villager succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, after which the boundary was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

Two watchtowers are conserved in addition to a collection of tableaux showing the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to look after their crops; the partner could operate the agricultural equipment but not the pair, for fear that they tried to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most, but more than twice as many people (exceeding 300) were killed trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director informs me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the grey zone between two political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. About fifteen thousand came to visit annually, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Modern Evolutions

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and large parking lot – is probable to