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An stream so low you barely got your ankles wet separated a village for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Several months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents started memorialising their history. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the collapse 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 exhibition was not entirely ready. Addressing the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel split, which tore families asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal split, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its men the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the residents socializing in the identical inn, visiting the very same place of worship and placing their children to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Then came the global conflict. The moment they came, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the brook. For a year they seized the whole hamlet, creating their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a period, locals could still cross over, though as controls increased they were obliged to show identity papers, although all was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and observation points. The locals could still see each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side waving and shouting were forbidden. One woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how much structure they wished to preserve. They selected a section on the western edge, adjacent to where a local resident managed to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, after which the boundary was substantially reinforced.

Conserved Structures

2 observation towers are conserved in addition to a series of exhibits showing the most dramatic moments in the community’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required specific authorization to tend to their crops; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but never the pair, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Context

The border between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most, but more than double the number people (exceeding 300) were killed trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They did not supported the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Approximately 15,000 came to see each year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Current Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, movie theater and large vehicle area – is likely to