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A stream so shallow you hardly got your feet wet separated a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own division was breached, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of residents began documenting their history. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Addressing the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel division, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which tore households asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male members the name Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the oddity did not stand in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the identical inn, visiting the identical church and enrolling their children to the same learning center.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Russians erected timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the whole village, creating their command in a house on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw back over the stream. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to show ID, although everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at night.

Escalation of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still see each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were banned. A local woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for answering “back at you” to a West German resident who said her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me narratives including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his occupational time building it. Residents were consulted in the initial phases about how much wall they desired to preserve. They selected a portion on the western edge, close to where a villager managed to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, after which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of observation towers are conserved alongside a collection of exhibits showing the most impactful dates in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, the director enumerates the rules: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Farmers needed specific authorization to care for their produce; the husband or wife could operate the combine harvester but not the two, for fear that they tried to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most, but in excess of double the number individuals (more than 300) were killed trying to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the grey zone between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They neither backed the socialist government nor resisted it, the director states.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of destination. Approximately 15,000 visited each year, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, led to new curiosity.

Modern Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and big vehicle area – is expected to