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An creek so shallow you hardly got your feet wet divided a settlement for over four decades. By an accident of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a group of residents began documenting their history. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely ready. Speaking to the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an brutal division, which tore families asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal separation, which pulled households apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its men the title Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the way of the locals socializing in the very same pub, attending the very same place of worship and sending their children to the same educational institution.

Post-War Division

Then came the World War II. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces erected timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the whole village, establishing their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to retreat back over the stream. For a while, residents could still cross over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to present identity papers, although all was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was built, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could continue to see each other by ascending hills, but on the east side signaling and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for responding “back at you” to a western resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I heard accounts including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his occupational time developing it. Residents were asked early on about how much structure they wanted to maintain. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian edge, close to where a villager was able to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

2 guard towers are conserved in addition to a collection of tableaux depicting the most significant moments in the village’s past. As we walk, Lebergen details the rules: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents needed special permission to care for their produce; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but never the two, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Context

The border between West Germany and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many people (well over 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a kind of site of interest. Approximately 15k visited every year, optical devices in their hands, to look – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the television series, a television program about a imaginary village resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and big vehicle area – is probable to