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An brook so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a settlement for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the core 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 frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people started documenting their past. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Addressing the villagers who experienced the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped families asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which tore families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals socializing in the same tavern, going to the very same church and sending their children to the very same educational institution.

After the War Division

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Russians put up wood stakes by the creek. For a annual period they seized the entire hamlet, setting up their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to retreat across the stream. For a time, villagers could continue to cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to present identity papers, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could still see each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side signaling and yelling were forbidden. A local woman was put on a Stasi monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a western resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told narratives such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his professional career developing it. Residents were polled early on about how much barrier they desired to keep. They opted for a section on the west perimeter, near where one of their own managed to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Maintained Installations

2 observation towers are preserved together with a collection of tableaux showing the most dramatic moments in the community’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents needed particular approval to care for their fields; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, in case they attempted to escape. Military personnel stood watch.

Larger Context

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their farms. They nor did they endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. Approximately 15,000 visited annually, binoculars in their hands, to look – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

25 years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is probable to