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An creek so narrow you barely got your ankles wet split a community for over four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

Months after their own wall was breached, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents began documenting their past. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely ready. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which tore families into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which tore relatives apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most famous for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the manner of the residents socializing in the very same pub, going to the very same church and enrolling their children to the identical school.

Post-War Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces installed wooden posts by the stream. For a annual period they took over the entire hamlet, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers persuaded them to retreat back over the brook. For a time, villagers could continue to jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to present identification, despite the fact that each person understood who they were, and to return at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could continue to observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side signaling and shouting were banned. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for responding “back at you” to a western resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his working life creating it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how what length of barrier they desired to keep. They selected a stretch on the western fringe, close to where one of their own managed to escape in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was substantially fortified.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of guard towers are preserved alongside a series of exhibits depicting the most impactful dates in the village’s history. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers had to obtain particular approval to look after their crops; the partner could work the harvesting machine but not both, in case they tried to escape. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but more than double the number persons (exceeding 300) were killed trying to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They neither backed the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. Roughly 15,000 visited every year, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Present-Day Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, film screening area and sizable car park – is likely to