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A creek so low you scarcely got your ankles wet split a village for more than four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own wall was breached, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a collection of local people began commemorating their history. The effort is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Telling the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which tore families asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal split, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the same inn, going to the same religious building and enrolling their young ones to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the entire hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to withdraw back over the stream. For a while, villagers could still hop over, though as controls increased they were obliged to present ID, although everyone knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was constructed, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could still see each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were banned. A female resident was placed on a East German secret police watch list for answering “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told accounts such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his working life developing it. Residents were asked early on about how much barrier they wished to keep. They opted for a section on the Bavarian edge, close to where a villager managed to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the boundary was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

2 guard towers are preserved alongside a series of exhibits showing the most significant events in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, the director details the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to look after their crops; the partner could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the two, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Context

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but in excess of twice as many people (more than 300) died seeking to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director tells me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They nor did they backed the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. Roughly 15k came to visit every year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, the TV show, a television program about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and big vehicle area – is expected to