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A stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a community for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Months after their own division was breached, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people started documenting their history. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Telling the locals who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel split, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which pulled families apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the residents socializing in the same inn, going to the identical place of worship and placing their young ones to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the brook. For a year they took over the entire village, setting up their command in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to withdraw back over the brook. For a while, villagers could still jump across, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to present ID, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could continue to see each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were banned. A local woman was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for answering “back at you” to a western villager who said her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his working life developing it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wanted to maintain. They selected a stretch on the western fringe, near where one of their own succeeded to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Structures

A pair of watchtowers are maintained in addition to a set of exhibits depicting the most impactful moments in the village’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Farmers required particular approval to look after their fields; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, for fear that they sought to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Context

The border between Western Germany and the GDR ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but in excess of two times more people (well over 300) died trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director informs me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between two political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They did not supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the village became a type of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k came to visit annually, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a broadcast production about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Modern Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, movie theater and large car park – is likely to