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An stream so narrow you barely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a group of residents set about documenting their history. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Bygone Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most famous for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the residents drinking in the very same inn, attending the identical place of worship and enrolling their children to the identical learning center.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians put up wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the whole village, establishing their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to retreat across the brook. For a time, villagers could continue to cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were required to present identification, even though each person understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could continue to view each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side waving and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his occupational time building it. Locals were polled early on about how what length of structure they desired to keep. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where a local resident managed to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the boundary was significantly fortified.

Preserved Buildings

Two guard towers are conserved together with a set of tableaux illustrating the most impactful events in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, the director details the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to tend to their fields; the spouse could use the combine harvester but never the two, in case they tried to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Context

The border between Western Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but in excess of double the number persons (more than 300) were killed attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director reminds me that 95 percent of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They neither backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit annually, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Current Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and big vehicle area – is likely to