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An brook so shallow you barely got your feet wet divided a community for more than four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a group of villagers set about documenting their heritage. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Addressing the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which tore households asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the peculiarity did not stand in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same tavern, going to the identical church and enrolling their kids to the same learning center.

Post-War Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russians put up wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the entire community, establishing their command in a building on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a while, residents could still jump across, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to show ID, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side signaling and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was added to a GDR intelligence monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Locals were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section wall they desired to preserve. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the boundary was significantly fortified.

Maintained Installations

2 watchtowers are maintained alongside a set of exhibits showing the most dramatic moments in the village’s history. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to care for their crops; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but not the two, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Background

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but over double the number people (more than 300) died trying to pass over it in countryside regions than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their land. They did not backed the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a kind of destination. About 15,000 visited each year, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary community resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed interest.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and large vehicle area – is probable to