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An creek so low you scarcely got your feet wet divided a settlement for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of villagers started commemorating their heritage. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely finished. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal split, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which pulled households apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Historical Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the community straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the locals gathering in the same inn, going to the very same religious building and sending their young ones to the very same learning center.

Post-War Split

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians installed wood stakes by the stream. For a year they occupied the complete hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to retreat across the stream. For a period, villagers could still jump across, though as controls increased they were forced to present identification, even though everyone understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The villagers could still observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side signaling and yelling were forbidden. One woman was placed on a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his professional career creating it. Residents were consulted early on about how much structure they wanted to preserve. They selected a stretch on the western edge, close to where a villager was able to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the border was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Installations

Two guard towers are preserved together with a series of exhibits showing the most significant dates in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required specific authorization to care for their crops; the partner could work the combine harvester but not the pair, in case they tried to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Background

The border between Western Germany and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but over double the number persons (more than 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor fought it, the director states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit each year, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, movie theater and large car park – is likely to