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An creek so narrow you barely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for in excess of four decades. By an accident of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops called it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own division was breached, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people started documenting their past. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely ready. Addressing the locals who experienced the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Even at its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals drinking in the identical pub, going to the same church and placing their young ones to the very same school.

Following WWII Division

Then came the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russians put up wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they took over the entire community, creating their control center in a house on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a period, villagers could still jump across, though as restrictions increased they were required to present identification, despite the fact that everyone understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The residents could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was added to a East German secret police watch list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

I heard narratives such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his occupational time building it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how what length of structure they wanted to preserve. They opted for a section on the west fringe, close to where one of their own was able to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the border was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Structures

2 watchtowers are maintained in addition to a set of displays illustrating the most dramatic dates in the village’s history. As we walk, Lebergen details the regulations: nobody could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents needed particular approval to care for their produce; the partner could use the combine harvester but never the two, lest they tried to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Background

The border between Western Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but in excess of two times more people (exceeding 300) died trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of site of interest. Roughly 15k came to see every year, optical devices in hand, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is expected to