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An stream so low you scarcely got your feet wet divided a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of villagers set about memorialising their past. The effort is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an cruel division, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal split, which ripped families apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most famous for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity never stood in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the identical inn, going to the very same place of worship and sending their young ones to the same educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Then came the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops put up wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the complete community, creating their command in a house on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a while, villagers could still jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to display ID, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still view each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was added to a East German secret police watch list for replying “same to you” to a western resident who said her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were polled in the initial phases about how how long a section wall they wished to preserve. They selected a stretch on the west perimeter, near where a local resident managed to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, after which the frontier was heavily fortified.

Maintained Buildings

2 watchtowers are conserved alongside a set of displays depicting the most impactful dates in the village’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to look after their produce; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but never the pair, in case they sought to flee. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Background

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but over twice as many persons (more than 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between a pair of belief systems by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They did not backed the communist regime nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit every year, binoculars in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to fresh curiosity.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and big parking lot – is probable to