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A brook so narrow you barely got your feet wet separated a village for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own wall was opened, and before their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers started documenting their past. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely prepared. Telling the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal division, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel division, which tore households asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for assigning all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the very same inn, attending the very same place of worship and sending their young ones to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the stream. For a year they took over the complete village, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to pull back across the creek. For a period, villagers could continue to jump across, though as restrictions increased they were forced to show identification, although all understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The locals could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side waving and shouting were prohibited. One woman was added to a East German secret police watch list for responding “likewise” to a West German local who wished her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his professional career developing it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they desired to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the west fringe, close to where a villager was able to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, after which the border was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of guard towers are conserved together with a set of exhibits illustrating the most significant dates in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, Lebergen lists the rules: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed particular approval to look after their produce; the spouse could work the harvesting machine but not the pair, for fear that they sought to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but more than twice as many persons (well over 300) died trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. the director tells me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They did not backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director explains.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to visit each year, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, led to fresh curiosity.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and big parking lot – is expected to