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An brook so shallow you barely got your ankles wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Months after their own wall was opened, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of local people set about commemorating their history. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Speaking to the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which tore families into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which pulled families into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Context

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the manner of the locals socializing in the same tavern, going to the very same religious building and sending their children to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Then came the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they took over the complete community, creating their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a while, villagers could still jump across, though as restrictions increased they were forced to show identification, although everyone knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could still observe each other by scaling hills, but on the eastern side gesturing and calling out were forbidden. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a West German resident who said her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated much of his professional career developing it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how much barrier they desired to preserve. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian fringe, close to where a local resident was able to escape in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

Two observation towers are conserved together with a set of tableaux showing the most dramatic moments in the village’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required special permission to tend to their produce; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, in case they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but in excess of two times more individuals (well over 300) were killed attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by avoiding attention and caring for their farms. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of pilgrimage. Approximately 15,000 visited annually, binoculars in possession, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Current Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and large vehicle area – is probable to