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A creek so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a community for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people started memorialising their heritage. The effort is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely ready. Telling the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

Past Origins

Even at its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most famous for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity never stood in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the identical pub, attending the identical place of worship and placing their kids to the same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces erected timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the complete village, creating their command in a house on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to pull back back over the brook. For a while, residents could continue to cross over, though as controls became stricter they were forced to present identity papers, although each person understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The locals could still observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a Stasi watch list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his professional career building it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how how long a section structure they desired to maintain. They chose a portion on the west edge, adjacent to where a local resident managed to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, after which the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Structures

2 guard towers are preserved in addition to a series of tableaux depicting the most dramatic dates in the village’s history. As we move, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to tend to their crops; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but never the pair, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Context

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of twice as many individuals (well over 300) were killed attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Community Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of site of interest. About 15k came to see every year, optical devices in hand, to stare – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Modern Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and big car park – is probable to