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An stream so low you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own division was torn down, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a group of residents began memorialising their history. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which tore families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore families asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Bygone Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity never stood in the way of the residents gathering in the same tavern, visiting the same place of worship and placing their kids to the very same school.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they took over the entire community, setting up their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to withdraw back over the creek. For a period, residents could continue to hop over, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to present ID, although everyone understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Increase of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could continue to view each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was added to a East German secret police watch list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his professional career building it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how much wall they desired to keep. They opted for a portion on the western fringe, close to where a villager was able to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the frontier was significantly fortified.

Conserved Installations

A pair of guard towers are maintained in addition to a set of tableaux depicting the most dramatic moments in the community’s chronicle. As we move, Lebergen lists the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Farmers required special permission to look after their produce; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but never the pair, for fear that they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but more than twice as many individuals (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director tells me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They neither backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. About 15,000 visited every year, optical devices in hand, to stare – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, film screening area and big vehicle area – is probable to