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A stream so narrow you barely got your ankles wet divided a community for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was marked first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers began memorialising their history. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Addressing the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which ripped households apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for giving all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the oddity did not stand in the manner of the locals socializing in the same inn, going to the same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the global conflict. The moment they came, the Russians erected timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the entire hamlet, creating their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to pull back back over the brook. For a time, locals could still jump across, though as controls increased they were required to present identification, despite the fact that everyone understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The locals could still observe each other by climbing hills, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for replying “likewise” to a West German resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his occupational time developing it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they wanted to maintain. They selected a portion on the west fringe, adjacent to where one of their own managed to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the border was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

2 guard towers are maintained together with a set of exhibits illustrating the most dramatic moments in the community’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen lists the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Farmers required particular approval to tend to their produce; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but not both, for fear that they attempted to escape. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but over double the number persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the grey zone between a pair of belief systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their land. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to see each year, binoculars in their hands, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and large vehicle area – is likely to