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An brook so narrow you barely got your feet wet divided a village for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

Several months after their own division was torn down, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers set about memorialising their history. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which tore families apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the village cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for giving all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the quirk never stood in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the identical tavern, visiting the identical religious building and placing their children to the identical school.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russians put up wooden posts by the creek. For a year they occupied the whole village, setting up their command in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a time, locals could still cross over, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to display identity papers, even though all understood who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could continue to view each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and yelling were banned. A female resident was put on a Stasi watch list for replying “back at you” to a western villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were polled early on about how what length of structure they wished to keep. They opted for a portion on the west perimeter, close to where a local resident managed to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was significantly fortified.

Maintained Structures

2 guard towers are preserved alongside a set of displays showing the most dramatic dates in the community’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers required specific authorization to tend to their crops; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but not the two, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Context

The boundary between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many people (well over 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adjusted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of destination. Approximately fifteen thousand visited annually, optical devices in possession, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a television program about a made-up village similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh interest.

Modern Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and big car park – is expected to