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An creek so low you barely got your feet wet divided a settlement for over four decades of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own wall was torn down, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents began documenting their past. The work is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not completely finished. Speaking to the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family best known for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and counting them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity did not stand in the way of the residents gathering in the identical tavern, attending the very same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the same educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Then came the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the stream. For a annual period they took over the complete hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers convinced them to pull back across the creek. For a while, locals could still jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to display identification, even though all understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could continue to see each other by climbing hills, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his professional career developing it. Residents were polled in the initial phases about how how long a section structure they wished to keep. They opted for a portion on the west perimeter, near where a local resident succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Preserved Structures

A pair of watchtowers are maintained alongside a series of tableaux showing the most dramatic events in the community’s history. As we move, Robert Lebegern lists the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the border. Farmers required particular approval to look after their crops; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but never the two, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Context

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the most, but over two times more individuals (more than 300) died attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director informs me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and tending to their land. They did not supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the village became a kind of destination. About fifteen thousand came to visit annually, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a television program about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, led to fresh curiosity.

Modern Changes

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