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An stream so low you scarcely got your feet wet split a community for more than four decades of time. By an accident of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a assembly of residents set about commemorating their past. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely prepared. Telling the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman split, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Historical Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk never stood in the path of the residents socializing in the identical inn, visiting the very same religious building and enrolling their children to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Split

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the stream. For a annual period they seized the entire community, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a time, residents could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were required to display identity papers, even though each person knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Boundary Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The locals could still observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were banned. One woman was put on a East German secret police watch list for responding “back at you” to a Bavarian local who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me narratives such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time building it. Residents were asked early on about how how long a section structure they wanted to keep. They opted for a section on the Bavarian edge, close to where one of their own was able to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the border was substantially reinforced.

Conserved Installations

A pair of guard towers are conserved in addition to a collection of displays showing the most significant moments in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to care for their crops; the partner could operate the combine harvester but not the pair, for fear that they tried to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Broader Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most, but over twice as many persons (more than 300) died attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between two political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the settlement became a kind of site of interest. About fifteen thousand visited every year, binoculars in possession, to look – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up village similar to Mödlareuth, led to new curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and big car park – is likely to