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A creek so narrow you barely got your feet wet split a settlement for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, fields and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Months after their own wall was opened, and before their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of local people set about commemorating their past. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely ready. Speaking to the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the locals gathering in the very same tavern, visiting the same religious building and placing their kids to the identical educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they took over the entire hamlet, creating their control center in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat across the creek. For a period, locals could still cross over, though as controls became stricter they were required to show identity papers, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could continue to view each other by climbing elevations, but on the east side waving and calling out were prohibited. One woman was put on a Stasi monitoring list for answering “likewise” to a western resident who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I heard stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were polled early on about how much structure they wished to maintain. They chose a portion on the Bavarian edge, close to where a villager managed to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was heavily fortified.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of observation towers are maintained together with a series of tableaux illustrating the most impactful moments in the community’s past. As we stroll, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but never the two, lest they sought to flee. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Context

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the most, but in excess of two times more persons (well over 300) died attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director tells me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and tending to their land. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. About fifteen thousand visited every year, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and large parking lot – is probable to