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An stream so shallow you barely got your ankles wet separated a community for over four decades. By an accident of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops called it Small Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers began memorialising their history. The work is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely ready. Addressing the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel split, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal separation, which tore households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Context

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the locals gathering in the same inn, attending the identical place of worship and sending their children to the identical school.

Post-War Division

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Russian troops put up wood stakes by the stream. For a year they occupied the whole hamlet, creating their headquarters in a building on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a time, villagers could still cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were required to display identification, although each person was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with landmines, tank traps and observation points. The residents could continue to view each other by scaling hills, but on the eastern side waving and yelling were prohibited. One woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for responding “back at you” to a western resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a large part of his professional career creating it. Locals were asked early on about how how long a section wall they wanted to preserve. They opted for a section on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where a local resident managed to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the boundary was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Structures

2 guard towers are maintained alongside a series of exhibits showing the most impactful events in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to tend to their produce; the spouse could work the harvesting machine but never the two, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of double the number individuals (well over 300) were killed seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. the director tells me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. Roughly 15k visited each year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a television program about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is probable to