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An stream so low you hardly got your feet wet divided a community for over four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people began commemorating their history. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely ready. Telling the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity never stood in the way of the locals socializing in the identical pub, going to the very same church and placing their young ones to the same educational institution.

After the War Split

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces erected timber poles by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the whole community, setting up their command in a house on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw back over the creek. For a period, locals could still cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to display identification, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were banned. One woman was placed on a East German secret police watch list for responding “likewise” to a West German villager who wished her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his professional career developing it. Residents were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of structure they wished to keep. They selected a section on the Bavarian perimeter, near where a villager succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Installations

A pair of observation towers are preserved alongside a series of tableaux depicting the most impactful dates in the village’s past. As we move, Lebergen lists the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed specific authorization to care for their fields; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, in case they tried to escape. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Perspective

The border between West Germany and the GDR extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but over twice as many persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. About 15,000 visited each year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and big vehicle area – is likely to