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An stream so low you barely got your feet wet split a village for in excess of four decades of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, fields and stunning vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of residents began commemorating their history. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely ready. Addressing the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an cruel split, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which ripped households apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the locals gathering in the same pub, attending the identical religious building and sending their children to the very same educational institution.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the whole hamlet, setting up their headquarters in a building on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to withdraw across the stream. For a time, residents could still cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to present identification, although each person knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with mines, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could continue to see each other by scaling slopes, but on the Soviet side signaling and yelling were forbidden. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for responding “same to you” to a West German resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career building it. Locals were polled early on about how much wall they wanted to maintain. They selected a portion on the western edge, near where one of their own succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the border was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Installations

A pair of watchtowers are preserved together with a series of displays illustrating the most impactful dates in the village’s past. As we stroll, Lebergen enumerates the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, lest they tried to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Background

The border between Western Germany and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but more than two times more persons (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, the director states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. About 15k visited every year, optical devices in hand, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, led to new curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, cinema room and big car park – is expected to