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An brook so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a community for in excess of four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by pine forests, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their country had unified again in 1990, a assembly of residents started memorialising their heritage. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely finished. Speaking to the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal division, which tore relatives apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the locals gathering in the very same inn, visiting the very same church and sending their children to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Then came the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the entire village, creating their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to retreat across the stream. For a time, residents could continue to cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to present identification, despite the fact that each person understood who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side signaling and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was put on a East German secret police watch list for replying “likewise” to a West German villager who wished her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life creating it. Locals were consulted in the initial phases about how much wall they wished to keep. They chose a stretch on the west edge, close to where a local resident succeeded to escape in the dead of night with a ladder, after which the border was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

Two watchtowers are maintained together with a set of tableaux depicting the most significant events in the hamlet’s past. As we move, the director lists the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to look after their crops; the spouse could work the combine harvester but never both, for fear that they sought to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most, but over twice as many persons (exceeding 300) died seeking to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Community Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They did not supported the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of site of interest. Roughly 15k came to see annually, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Modern Developments

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, cinema room and sizable car park – is likely to