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An brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a village for over four decades of time. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own division was opened, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people began memorialising their past. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely prepared. Addressing the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore relatives asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal split, which pulled households into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Bygone Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity never stood in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the very same inn, going to the same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the very same learning center.

After the War Division

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces installed wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they seized the complete hamlet, establishing their command in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans persuaded them to retreat across the stream. For a period, villagers could still jump across, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to display identification, despite the fact that everyone knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was erected, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The villagers could continue to observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were banned. A female resident was put on a Stasi watch list for replying “likewise” to a western resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

I was told narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career developing it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how how long a section wall they wanted to maintain. They chose a section on the Bavarian edge, close to where one of their own managed to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Preserved Installations

A pair of observation towers are conserved in addition to a series of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic events in the village’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to tend to their fields; the partner could work the harvesting machine but not both, lest they tried to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Context

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but over two times more individuals (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director tells me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their farms. They did not backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k visited annually, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, movie theater and sizable parking lot – is expected to