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A creek so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a village for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by pine forests, pastures and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people began memorialising their past. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Telling the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal division, which pulled relatives asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk never stood in the path of the locals gathering in the same inn, going to the same place of worship and sending their young ones to the same educational institution.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the whole village, setting up their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to retreat back over the creek. For a time, residents could continue to hop over, though as limitations tightened they were forced to present ID, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was erected, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the east side signaling and calling out were prohibited. One woman was added to a Stasi monitoring list for responding “back at you” to a western resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they wished to preserve. They chose a portion on the west edge, near where one of their own managed to flee in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the border was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Structures

A pair of watchtowers are preserved together with a collection of displays depicting the most impactful moments in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to look after their crops; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but never the pair, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Background

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but in excess of double the number people (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They nor did they backed the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the settlement became a kind of destination. Roughly 15k came to see every year, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, film screening area and sizable car park – is likely to