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An creek so low you barely got your feet wet split a community for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, fields and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

A few months after their own division was breached, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers began memorialising their history. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite finished. Telling the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which tore relatives into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal split, which pulled families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Past Origins

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the same inn, attending the identical religious building and placing their young ones to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the creek. For a year they seized the complete community, setting up their command in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to pull back back over the brook. For a time, villagers could continue to jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to present identification, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could still see each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side waving and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was added to a East German secret police watch list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his professional career building it. Residents were asked early on about how what length of wall they wished to maintain. They opted for a section on the Bavarian perimeter, near where a villager succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of guard towers are conserved alongside a set of tableaux depicting the most impactful dates in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, the director details the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their crops; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but never both, for fear that they tried to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but in excess of two times more individuals (more than 300) died trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They did not backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand visited every year, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, caused new curiosity.

Modern Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, boutique, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is likely to