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A brook so shallow you barely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own wall was breached, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a group of residents began memorialising their history. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which tore families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which pulled relatives asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Historical Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for giving all its male members the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the identical pub, going to the same church and enrolling their young ones to the identical educational institution.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the creek. For a year they took over the complete village, setting up their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a while, residents could continue to hop over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to display identification, even though each person was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Border Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could continue to view each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a Stasi monitoring list for responding “back at you” to a West German local who said her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his occupational time building it. Locals were polled early on about how how long a section structure they desired to maintain. They opted for a section on the western fringe, close to where a local resident succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the boundary was heavily reinforced.

Preserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are conserved in addition to a collection of exhibits depicting the most impactful events in the village’s history. As we move, the director enumerates the rules: no one could approach 5km of the border. Farmers needed particular approval to tend to their crops; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but not the two, in case they tried to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the most, but more than twice as many individuals (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to dwelling in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, the director explains.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand visited every year, binoculars in their hands, to stare – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Modern Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, boutique, cinema room and big car park – is expected to