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An brook so shallow you barely got your feet wet split a settlement for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own wall was opened, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers started memorialising their past. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

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

Historical Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk never stood in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same pub, visiting the same place of worship and placing their kids to the identical learning center.

After the War Division

Next arrived the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians erected wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they took over the complete community, establishing their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were required to display identity papers, although each person understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could still view each other by ascending hills, but on the east side signaling and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was put on a East German secret police watch list for answering “back at you” to a western villager who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I was told narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time building it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how what length of structure they desired to maintain. They opted for a portion on the west edge, near where one of their own succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

A pair of observation towers are maintained alongside a collection of exhibits illustrating the most impactful moments in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, the director lists the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required special permission to care for their crops; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, in case they sought to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Context

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but more than double the number individuals (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They nor did they endorsed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a type of site of interest. About 15k visited each year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Current Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, cinema room and large car park – is expected to