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An stream so shallow you barely got your ankles wet separated a village for over four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own division was opened, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people started commemorating their heritage. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not completely finished. Telling the locals who experienced the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which ripped households asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal division, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Past Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the residents socializing in the identical inn, visiting the very same church and sending their children to the same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the stream. For a year they occupied the complete community, setting up their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to retreat across the creek. For a period, villagers could continue to hop over, though as controls increased they were required to display identity papers, despite the fact that each person knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could still view each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was added to a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life creating it. Residents were polled at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they wished to maintain. They selected a section on the west perimeter, adjacent to where a villager managed to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

Two observation towers are conserved alongside a collection of exhibits showing the most significant moments in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to look after their crops; the partner could work the combine harvester but not the pair, in case they tried to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Background

The border between West Germany and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but over double the number individuals (more than 300) died attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They neither backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a type of pilgrimage. About 15k came to see annually, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh curiosity.

Modern Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and big car park – is probable to