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An stream so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a community for over four decades. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by pine forests, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own division was opened, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of villagers started commemorating their history. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely ready. Addressing the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which pulled families apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Bygone Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity did not stand in the way of the residents gathering in the very same inn, going to the identical religious building and placing their kids to the identical school.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the complete community, establishing their command in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the brook. For a while, villagers could continue to cross over, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to present identity papers, despite the fact that everyone understood who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The residents could still observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side waving and calling out were banned. A female resident was put on a East German secret police watch list for replying “likewise” to a western local who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career building it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how much wall they wished to keep. They opted for a stretch on the western fringe, adjacent to where a villager was able to escape in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the boundary was substantially strengthened.

Maintained Buildings

2 observation towers are maintained together with a set of exhibits showing the most impactful moments in the village’s past. As we walk, the director lists the rules: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Farmers required specific authorization to care for their produce; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, in case they tried to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Broader Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the greatest, but in excess of two times more persons (exceeding 300) died trying to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95% of escape attempts failed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who adapted to living in the ambiguous area between a pair of belief systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of destination. Roughly 15,000 came to see each year, binoculars in their hands, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to renewed interest.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and large vehicle area – is expected to