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A brook so low you hardly got your feet wet divided a village for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by pine forests, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own division was breached, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers started memorialising their past. The work is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Speaking to the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which pulled households asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

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

Historical Origins

Right from its creation in 1810, the village straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the identical inn, attending the identical church and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the entire village, setting up their control center in a house on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw across the creek. For a while, locals could still hop over, though as limitations increased they were required to show identification, even though all understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could continue to view each other by scaling slopes, but on the eastern side signaling and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was put on a Stasi monitoring list for answering “likewise” to a western local who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me stories including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his occupational time developing it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how what length of structure they wished to preserve. They selected a portion on the west perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own managed to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the boundary was heavily reinforced.

Preserved Installations

A pair of observation towers are preserved in addition to a collection of displays showing the most impactful moments in the village’s past. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to look after their crops; the partner could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, in case they tried to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Background

The border between West Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most, but over twice as many persons (well over 300) were killed trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the grey zone between two political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their land. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, the director states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of pilgrimage. About 15k came to see annually, optical devices in hand, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Modern Evolutions

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and sizable car park – is probable to