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A stream so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. American soldiers nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a group of residents began commemorating their heritage. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely ready. Addressing the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which pulled households into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Past Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the identical inn, going to the identical church and enrolling their kids to the same school.

Post-War Separation

Then came the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the brook. For a year they took over the complete village, setting up their control center in a building on the western side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans urged them to withdraw back over the creek. For a time, locals could still cross over, though as limitations increased they were forced to present identification, even though each person knew who they were, and to come back at night.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could still see each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was added to a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a West German local who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

It was related to me accounts such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his professional career creating it. Residents were polled in the initial phases about how how long a section structure they wished to maintain. They opted for a portion on the western edge, near where one of their own managed to get away in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, after which the border was substantially reinforced.

Preserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are preserved together with a collection of displays showing the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, the director details the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the frontier. Farmers required special permission to tend to their fields; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but not the two, in case they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but more than twice as many persons (exceeding 300) died seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Roughly 15k came to see every year, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a TV series about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and big car park – is probable to