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An brook so narrow you barely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, fields and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier 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 division was torn down, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a group of residents set about memorialising their past. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the villagers who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel split, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Past Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the manner of the residents socializing in the very same inn, attending the same place of worship and sending their young ones to the identical school.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the complete hamlet, creating their command in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to retreat back over the stream. For a while, locals could still hop over, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to display identity papers, even though each person knew who they were, and to go back at night.

Increase of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was constructed, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The residents could still observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and calling out were prohibited. One woman was put on a Stasi watch list for answering “back at you” to a West German resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I was told stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his working life creating it. Locals were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of structure they desired to preserve. They chose a section on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where one of their own was able to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

Two watchtowers are conserved in addition to a collection of displays showing the most impactful events in the community’s chronicle. As we move, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required special permission to care for their crops; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but not the two, lest they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. the director tells me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. About 15k came to see annually, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, film screening area and sizable car park – is likely to