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An brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a village for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people set about documenting their past. The project is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely ready. Speaking to the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an brutal division, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped households apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the oddity never stood in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the same inn, visiting the same place of worship and sending their kids to the very same school.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the stream. For a year they occupied the complete hamlet, establishing their command in a building on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to pull back across the brook. For a time, residents could still cross over, though as limitations increased they were obliged to display ID, even though each person understood who they were, and to return at after dark.

Escalation of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still see each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were banned. One woman was added to a Stasi monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a western local who wished her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a large part of his working life developing it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how what length of structure they desired to preserve. They chose a section on the west perimeter, near where a local resident was able to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was significantly fortified.

Preserved Structures

2 observation towers are maintained in addition to a collection of displays depicting the most significant events in the community’s history. As we move, Lebergen enumerates the rules: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but not the pair, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Larger Context

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many persons (more than 300) were killed trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the ambiguous area between a pair of belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their land. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. About 15,000 came to see annually, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

25 years after unification, the TV show, a television program about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and big car park – is expected to