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A brook so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for in excess of four decades of time. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was marked first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a group of local people set about documenting their heritage. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Telling the villagers who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

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

Historical Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the residents gathering in the same pub, going to the same religious building and enrolling their kids to the identical educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Russian troops installed wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they seized the complete village, establishing their headquarters in a building on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to pull back back over the creek. For a time, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to present identification, even though each person understood who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could continue to see each other by scaling slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were banned. A female resident was added to a Stasi watch list for replying “same to you” to a western villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his professional career building it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how much structure they wanted to keep. They opted for a section on the western fringe, near where a villager was able to flee in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the frontier was heavily fortified.

Preserved Installations

2 observation towers are preserved together with a collection of exhibits showing the most impactful events in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, the director enumerates the rules: no one could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to tend to their produce; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but not the pair, in case they tried to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Larger Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many people (well over 300) died attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the ambiguous area between two political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their land. They nor did they backed the socialist government nor fought it, the director states.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of pilgrimage. About 15,000 came to visit every year, binoculars in their hands, to stare – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed interest.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and sizable car park – is expected to