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A stream so shallow you barely got your feet wet split a community for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by pine forests, pastures and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Months after their own wall was opened, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a group of residents began documenting their heritage. The effort is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely ready. Addressing the locals who experienced the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which tore families apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal split, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk never stood in the way of the locals gathering in the identical inn, going to the identical religious building and enrolling their young ones to the same school.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Russians erected wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the whole village, establishing their command in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw across the stream. For a while, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to show ID, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The villagers could continue to observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were banned. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I heard accounts such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career building it. Villagers were consulted early on about how what length of barrier they wanted to preserve. They selected a stretch on the west edge, close to where a villager was able to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, after which the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Conserved Installations

Two watchtowers are preserved together with a series of displays showing the most impactful moments in the community’s chronicle. As we move, Lebergen details the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents needed special permission to tend to their produce; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, lest they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Context

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but over double the number individuals (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director reminds me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to living in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They neither endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of site of interest. About 15k visited annually, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and sizable vehicle area – is likely to