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A stream so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a community for over four decades of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was breached, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a collection of local people began documenting their past. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Telling the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped relatives apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most famous for giving all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the same tavern, attending the very same place of worship and placing their children to the identical school.

After the War Split

Then came the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians put up timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the complete community, establishing their control center in a building on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to withdraw across the creek. For a period, residents could continue to jump across, though as controls increased they were required to show ID, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still view each other by ascending hills, but on the eastern side signaling and shouting were forbidden. A local woman was put on a Stasi monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his working life building it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section wall they wanted to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian fringe, close to where a local resident managed to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, after which the border was heavily fortified.

Conserved Structures

2 watchtowers are conserved together with a collection of tableaux showing the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, the director enumerates the rules: no one could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents needed particular approval to look after their fields; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but never both, for fear that they sought to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Context

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but over two times more individuals (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of site of interest. About 15k visited every year, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Modern Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is likely to