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An stream so narrow you barely got your feet wet split a village for more than four decades. By an accident of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by pine forests, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents began commemorating their past. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Speaking to the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel division, which pulled households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its men the title Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity never stood in the path of the locals gathering in the very same pub, going to the same religious building and sending their children to the identical educational institution.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops installed wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they took over the entire community, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to withdraw back over the stream. For a time, villagers could continue to cross over, though as controls became stricter they were forced to present identity papers, despite the fact that each person understood who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Border Measures

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could continue to observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told stories including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his professional career building it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wished to keep. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian fringe, near where one of their own was able to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the border was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Installations

2 guard towers are conserved in addition to a series of exhibits depicting the most significant events in the hamlet’s past. As we move, Lebergen lists the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers needed special permission to tend to their crops; the partner could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they attempted to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Larger Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of twice as many persons (well over 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of efforts to cross failed.

Community Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adapted to residing in the ambiguous area between two political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They did not backed the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. Roughly 15,000 came to visit each year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a fictional village like Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Modern Evolutions

The opening of the new museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, film screening area and big vehicle area – is expected to