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An stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a community for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own division was torn down, and before their state had become one in 1990, a assembly of residents began documenting their heritage. The work is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Addressing the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled relatives apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Background

Starting at its founding in 1810, the village straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity did not stand in the path of the locals socializing in the identical pub, visiting the very same religious building and sending their children to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians erected wood stakes by the stream. For a year they took over the complete community, establishing their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to retreat back over the brook. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to present identification, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the eastern side waving and yelling were banned. A local woman was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a western villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time building it. Locals were asked in the initial phases about how what length of structure they desired to keep. They selected a portion on the west edge, close to where a villager managed to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the border was substantially fortified.

Maintained Buildings

Two watchtowers are maintained in addition to a series of displays showing the most significant dates in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen lists the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed special permission to look after their produce; the spouse could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, in case they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Wider Background

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most, but in excess of twice as many people (more than 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Community Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the grey zone between two political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a type of destination. Roughly 15k visited every year, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Modern Developments

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, movie theater and sizable parking lot – is expected to