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An creek so low you hardly got your feet wet separated a village for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents started commemorating their heritage. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Addressing the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman split, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the village straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the quirk did not stand in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same tavern, attending the identical religious building and sending their kids to the very same learning center.

Post-War Separation

Then came the global conflict. The moment they came, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the brook. For a year they occupied the whole community, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw back over the brook. For a period, residents could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were required to present identification, although each person was aware who they were, and to come back at night.

Increase of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could continue to see each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side signaling and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a western local who said her “good new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how how long a section wall they desired to keep. They chose a section on the western edge, close to where a villager was able to get away in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of observation towers are conserved in addition to a set of tableaux illustrating the most impactful moments in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents needed particular approval to look after their fields; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but not the pair, lest they tried to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Context

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but over two times more persons (exceeding 300) died attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between two political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their farms. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of site of interest. Approximately 15,000 visited annually, binoculars in their hands, to look – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up village similar to Mödlareuth, led to new curiosity.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and big parking lot – is probable to