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A creek so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet split a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own wall was breached, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of local people started commemorating their heritage. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Speaking to the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an brutal division, which tore families into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the way of the locals drinking in the very same pub, visiting the same religious building and enrolling their kids to the very same learning center.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russians erected timber poles by the creek. For a annual period they seized the complete village, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces persuaded them to pull back back over the creek. For a period, villagers could continue to jump across, though as limitations increased they were forced to show identity papers, despite the fact that everyone knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could continue to see each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were forbidden. A female resident was put on a Stasi surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a West German resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

It was related to me stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were asked early on about how how long a section wall they desired to preserve. They opted for a section on the western perimeter, near where one of their own managed to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, after which the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Preserved Buildings

Two guard towers are conserved together with a collection of exhibits showing the most impactful moments in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the rules: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed specific authorization to care for their fields; the partner could work the combine harvester but not both, for fear that they tried to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the greatest, but more than double the number persons (exceeding 300) were killed attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k came to see annually, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

25 years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, boutique, cinema room and big vehicle area – is expected to