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An stream so low you scarcely got your ankles wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their country had unified again in 1990, a group of local people started commemorating their history. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely prepared. Telling the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman split, which ripped households apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped families asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Background

Even at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the very same pub, attending the identical place of worship and sending their children to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Then came the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops installed timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the entire hamlet, establishing their control center in a house on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to pull back across the brook. For a time, villagers could still jump across, though as controls increased they were required to show identity papers, even though everyone understood who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was erected, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The locals could continue to observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side signaling and calling out were forbidden. One woman was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career creating it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they desired to maintain. They chose a section on the west fringe, near where a villager was able to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was substantially strengthened.

Maintained Installations

Two watchtowers are maintained alongside a set of displays showing the most dramatic dates in the community’s past. As we walk, the director details the rules: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to look after their crops; the spouse could use the agricultural equipment but never the pair, in case they tried to flee. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but more than two times more individuals (exceeding 300) died trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. the director reminds me that 95 percent of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between a pair of belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their land. They did not backed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director explains.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. Roughly 15k came to see annually, optical devices in possession, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a imaginary village resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh curiosity.

Modern Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, shop, movie theater and big parking lot – is probable to