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A stream so shallow you barely got your ankles wet divided a village for over four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents set about memorialising their history. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely prepared. Addressing the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Historical Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals gathering in the very same tavern, visiting the very same church and sending their children to the very same learning center.

Post-War Division

Then came the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the complete hamlet, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to pull back back over the brook. For a while, locals could continue to cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to present identity papers, even though all understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side signaling and yelling were forbidden. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a western villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how what length of wall they wanted to preserve. They chose a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, near where a villager managed to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the border was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Structures

Two watchtowers are preserved together with a series of exhibits depicting the most significant events in the community’s history. As we move, the director enumerates the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required special permission to tend to their produce; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but never the two, lest they sought to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Wider Background

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to pass over it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director informs me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between two political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a type of site of interest. Approximately 15,000 visited every year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, led to fresh interest.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and big parking lot – is likely to