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A brook so low you barely got your feet wet separated a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own wall was opened, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people started commemorating their heritage. The effort is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel division, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for assigning all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the same pub, going to the very same place of worship and enrolling their kids to the identical school.

Post-War Separation

Then came the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces put up timber poles by the brook. For a year they seized the whole village, establishing their control center in a house on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw across the creek. For a while, residents could continue to hop over, though as controls tightened they were forced to present ID, even though each person understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Increase of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with mines, tank traps and watchtowers. The residents could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for responding “back at you” to a West German villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how much barrier they wished to preserve. They chose a portion on the west perimeter, close to where one of their own managed to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the boundary was substantially fortified.

Preserved Buildings

A pair of observation towers are conserved together with a collection of displays illustrating the most impactful dates in the community’s past. As we stroll, the director details the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required particular approval to look after their crops; the spouse could use the agricultural equipment but not the two, in case they sought to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Background

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but over twice as many individuals (exceeding 300) died trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and looking after their land. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of destination. Approximately 15,000 came to see every year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and large vehicle area – is likely to