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An creek so narrow you hardly got your feet wet divided a settlement for over four decades. By an accident of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a collection of residents began documenting their history. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel division, which tore relatives asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

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

Past Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the very same tavern, going to the very same religious building and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

Following WWII Split

Then came the global conflict. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the creek. For a year they took over the whole hamlet, creating their control center in a building on the western side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to retreat back over the brook. For a while, locals could still jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to display ID, even though each person was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could continue to view each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were banned. A female resident was placed on a Stasi monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a western resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told accounts including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Villagers were asked early on about how much wall they wanted to maintain. They selected a section on the western perimeter, near where a local resident managed to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the border was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Installations

2 observation towers are preserved together with a collection of displays illustrating the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s history. As we move, the director lists the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the border. Farmers had to obtain special permission to care for their fields; the partner could use the combine harvester but not both, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but in excess of two times more individuals (more than 300) died seeking to pass over it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director reminds me that 95% of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of pilgrimage. Roughly 15,000 visited every year, binoculars in their hands, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

25 years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Current Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and sizable car park – is likely to