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A creek so low you scarcely got your feet wet divided a village for over four decades. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by pine forests, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

A few months after their own division was torn down, and before their country had unified again in 1990, a group of residents began commemorating their history. The effort is close to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Telling the villagers who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which tore families apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which tore households apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the very same tavern, visiting the very same place of worship and placing their young ones to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Split

Then came the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Russians erected timber poles by the creek. For a year they occupied the whole village, creating their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers convinced them to withdraw back over the brook. For a time, villagers could still jump across, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to present identity papers, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Escalation of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could still view each other by scaling hills, but on the east side waving and calling out were forbidden. One woman was added to a Stasi watch list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian local who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Creation

I was told stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career building it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how how long a section wall they wished to keep. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where one of their own was able to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the border was heavily reinforced.

Preserved Installations

2 watchtowers are preserved alongside a collection of displays depicting the most impactful events in the village’s history. As we stroll, the director enumerates the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required particular approval to tend to their fields; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but not the two, for fear that they sought to flee. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but more than double the number individuals (well over 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their land. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. Approximately 15,000 came to visit each year, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, the TV show, a TV series about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh interest.

Current Changes

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