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A brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet split a community for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by evergreen groves, fields and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people set about commemorating their heritage. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely prepared. Speaking to the locals who experienced the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

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

Past Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the locals gathering in the same tavern, visiting the identical place of worship and placing their kids to the very same learning center.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops put up wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the entire community, establishing their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the brook. For a time, locals could still cross over, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to show identity papers, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could still observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a large part of his working life creating it. Residents were polled in the initial phases about how how long a section structure they desired to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the western edge, near where a local resident was able to get away in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Installations

Two observation towers are conserved together with a series of exhibits illustrating the most dramatic events in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents needed particular approval to care for their fields; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but never both, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the greatest, but over double the number individuals (well over 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. the director reminds me that 95 percent of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and tending to their land. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, the director explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of site of interest. About 15,000 came to visit annually, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, the television series, a television program about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Modern Evolutions

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, movie theater and large parking lot – is expected to