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An stream so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

Months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people started documenting their past. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely prepared. Telling the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal division, which pulled households apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for giving all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity never stood in the way of the residents drinking in the very same pub, attending the same place of worship and sending their children to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Russians installed wood stakes by the creek. For a annual period they took over the entire community, creating their control center in a building on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a while, villagers could continue to jump across, though as limitations increased they were obliged to present ID, even though each person was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The residents could continue to observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “likewise” to a West German villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time creating it. Locals were consulted at an early stage about how what length of barrier they wanted to preserve. They chose a section on the western edge, adjacent to where a villager managed to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the border was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Installations

Two watchtowers are preserved alongside a collection of exhibits showing the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers needed special permission to care for their crops; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but never the pair, lest they tried to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but in excess of two times more individuals (well over 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the grey zone between a pair of belief systems by avoiding attention and caring for their farms. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a type of site of interest. About 15k came to visit each year, optical devices in hand, to stare – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Modern Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, film screening area and sizable car park – is probable to