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A stream so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet split a community for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by pine forests, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was marked first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people set about memorialising their history. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Addressing the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which ripped families apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

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

Historical Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the same inn, going to the same church and sending their kids to the same learning center.

After the War Division

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the creek. For a year they took over the complete hamlet, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to withdraw back over the creek. For a period, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were required to present identity papers, despite the fact that everyone understood who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The residents could still see each other by ascending hills, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “back at you” to a western local who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his working life developing it. Villagers were polled early on about how how long a section barrier they wanted to keep. They chose a section on the Bavarian edge, near where a villager was able to escape in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, subsequently the boundary was significantly fortified.

Conserved Buildings

2 observation towers are conserved alongside a set of exhibits showing the most impactful events in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to care for their fields; the husband or wife could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they tried to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the GDR stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the greatest, but over two times more individuals (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director informs me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They did not backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand came to see each year, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Modern Evolutions

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