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A stream so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet split a settlement for over four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people began commemorating their heritage. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not completely ready. Addressing the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal split, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman split, which tore households asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Past Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family best known for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the residents socializing in the very same inn, going to the very same church and placing their young ones to the same school.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the stream. For a annual period they seized the complete hamlet, setting up their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans persuaded them to pull back across the brook. For a while, locals could continue to cross over, though as limitations increased they were required to show identification, although all was aware who they were, and to go back at night.

Increase of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could still see each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard accounts including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life developing it. Villagers were polled early on about how much structure they desired to keep. They chose a section on the western edge, close to where one of their own succeeded to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the border was substantially fortified.

Preserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are maintained together with a set of displays depicting the most impactful events in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to look after their fields; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but never the pair, in case they attempted to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The border between Western Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but more than twice as many persons (well over 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They did not supported the socialist government nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of pilgrimage. Roughly 15,000 came to see each year, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and large vehicle area – is probable to