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A creek so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a village for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel called it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a assembly of residents started commemorating their history. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely ready. Addressing the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman split, which pulled families asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the village straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same inn, visiting the very same church and enrolling their kids to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the entire hamlet, establishing their command in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to pull back across the stream. For a time, residents could still hop over, though as controls tightened they were required to present ID, despite the fact that each person knew who they were, and to return at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The residents could still view each other by scaling hills, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was put on a East German secret police watch list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told narratives including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated much of his working life building it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wanted to preserve. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own managed to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the frontier was significantly fortified.

Conserved Structures

Two watchtowers are maintained in addition to a set of tableaux depicting the most impactful moments in the community’s history. As we stroll, Lebergen lists the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents required specific authorization to tend to their produce; the partner could use the harvesting machine but not the pair, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but in excess of twice as many individuals (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. the director tells me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They did not supported the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k came to see every year, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a television program about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is likely to