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An brook so shallow you hardly got your feet wet split a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and before their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of residents set about memorialising their history. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel division, which ripped relatives asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk did not stand in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the same inn, going to the very same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the World War II. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they took over the complete hamlet, setting up their command in a house on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers convinced them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as controls increased they were forced to present ID, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Escalation of Border Controls

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could continue to view each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were banned. A female resident was added to a Stasi watch list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told accounts including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life developing it. Locals were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they wanted to keep. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to get away in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Installations

A pair of guard towers are maintained together with a series of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, the director details the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Farmers needed particular approval to look after their produce; the partner could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, in case they tried to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Background

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but over twice as many people (more than 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director informs me that 95% of escape attempts failed.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or craftsmen, who adapted to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor resisted it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand visited annually, optical devices in possession, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is probable to