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An brook so narrow you barely got your ankles wet split a village for more than four decades. By an accident of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Months after their own division was opened, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a group of residents began commemorating their past. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Speaking to the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which ripped households apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its creation in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family best known for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals drinking in the identical tavern, going to the identical religious building and placing their kids to the very same school.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the World War II. Immediately after they came, the Russian troops installed wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the entire hamlet, creating their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans convinced them to pull back to the other side of the brook. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were forced to present ID, although everyone understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could still see each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were forbidden. One woman was put on a Stasi watch list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I was told accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time building it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how what length of wall they wished to maintain. They chose a section on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where a villager was able to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the border was significantly strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of watchtowers are conserved alongside a series of displays depicting the most impactful events in the village’s past. As we move, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the frontier. Farmers required special permission to look after their fields; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, lest they attempted to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but in excess of twice as many persons (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the grey zone between a pair of belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of destination. Roughly 15,000 came to visit each year, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, the TV show, a television program about a imaginary community resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and big parking lot – is probable to