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An stream so shallow you hardly got your feet wet separated a community for in excess of four decades. By an accident of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a group of residents started documenting their heritage. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely prepared. Speaking to the locals who experienced the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel split, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal division, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Past Context

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk never stood in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the identical inn, attending the same church and sending their young ones to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they took over the complete hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a while, locals could continue to cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to show identification, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could still observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side signaling and calling out were banned. A local woman was added to a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “back at you” to a West German villager who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Locals were asked in the initial phases about how what length of wall they wished to preserve. They chose a section on the western perimeter, near where a local resident succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the border was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of observation towers are preserved together with a collection of displays depicting the most dramatic moments in the village’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the rules: no one could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to look after their produce; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but never the two, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Context

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but in excess of double the number individuals (more than 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They neither backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. Roughly 15,000 came to visit every year, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

25 years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, led to new curiosity.

Modern Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, store, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is probable to