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A creek so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for over four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of residents started documenting their heritage. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Bygone Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the identical pub, going to the same religious building and enrolling their kids to the same educational institution.

After the War Split

Next arrived the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Russians erected wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they occupied the whole hamlet, establishing their command in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to retreat across the creek. For a while, locals could still jump across, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to display identity papers, even though each person was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still view each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were banned. A local woman was put on a Stasi watch list for replying “likewise” to a western resident who wished her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Locals were consulted at an early stage about how much wall they wished to keep. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian fringe, near where one of their own was able to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the frontier was heavily reinforced.

Maintained Installations

2 observation towers are maintained together with a set of displays showing the most dramatic events in the community’s chronicle. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers had to obtain particular approval to tend to their fields; the partner could use the combine harvester but never the pair, lest they attempted to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Wider Background

The border between Western Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but more than double the number persons (more than 300) were killed attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They did not supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. About 15,000 visited each year, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a television program about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and large parking lot – is likely to