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A brook so shallow you hardly got your feet wet separated a settlement for over four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of local people set about memorialising their history. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, 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 show wasn’t quite finished. Speaking to the residents who lived through the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal split, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which ripped households apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Even at its creation in 1810, the village straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its men the title Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the residents gathering in the same pub, going to the very same religious building and sending their children to the same educational institution.

After the War Division

Then came the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Russians installed wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they took over the whole community, establishing their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a time, locals could still jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were required to display ID, even though all understood who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. One woman was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “back at you” to a western resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

It was related to me accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his working life developing it. Locals were consulted early on about how how long a section structure they wished to maintain. They chose a section on the Bavarian fringe, near where a local resident was able to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the border was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Structures

A pair of watchtowers are conserved together with a set of displays depicting the most significant events in the village’s past. As we walk, Lebergen details the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to look after their produce; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but never the pair, for fear that they tried to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Context

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but in excess of twice as many people (well over 300) lost their lives seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and tending to their land. They did not supported the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of site of interest. About fifteen thousand came to see every year, binoculars in their hands, to look – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Modern Developments

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and big car park – is probable to