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An creek so low you scarcely got your feet wet separated a village for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by pine forests, fields and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a group of local people set about memorialising their heritage. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Addressing the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which pulled families apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity never stood in the path of the residents gathering in the identical pub, attending the very same place of worship and placing their young ones to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the World War II. The moment they came, the Russians put up wood stakes by the brook. For a year they occupied the entire village, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a while, residents could still jump across, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to show ID, although all knew who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The residents could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a western local who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a large part of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section wall they desired to maintain. They opted for a portion on the western perimeter, close to where one of their own succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

Two guard towers are maintained in addition to a series of tableaux showing the most impactful dates in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, Lebergen details the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed special permission to look after their crops; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Background

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but in excess of two times more persons (well over 300) lost their lives seeking to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. the director informs me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They did not supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15,000 visited each year, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and sizable car park – is likely to