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An brook so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a community for over four decades. Due to a quirk of landscape, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by pine forests, fields and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own wall was opened, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers started documenting their history. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Telling the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled families apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel split, which tore relatives into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its creation in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals socializing in the same tavern, going to the very same place of worship and sending their kids to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians erected wooden posts by the stream. For a year they occupied the entire hamlet, creating their command in a house on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a while, residents could continue to jump across, though as controls became stricter they were required to show identity papers, although each person understood who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could still see each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for answering “back at you” to a Bavarian villager who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I heard narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how what length of wall they wished to maintain. They chose a section on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where one of their own managed to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the boundary was significantly fortified.

Maintained Structures

A pair of guard towers are maintained in addition to a set of tableaux showing the most impactful events in the community’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the border. Farmers required specific authorization to look after their fields; the spouse could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, in case they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Context

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but in excess of twice as many persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They did not backed the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of destination. Approximately fifteen thousand visited annually, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional village like Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Current Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, cinema room and large vehicle area – is probable to