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A stream so low you scarcely got your feet wet split a village for over four decades. Due to a quirk of landscape, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

A few months after their own wall was opened, and before their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of residents started documenting their heritage. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely finished. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal division, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Right from its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the residents drinking in the same inn, going to the very same church and sending their young ones to the very same educational institution.

After the War Division

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the complete village, creating their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat back over the creek. For a period, villagers could continue to jump across, though as controls increased they were forced to display identification, even though all was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could still view each other by ascending hills, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. One woman was put on a Stasi surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a western villager who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time building it. Villagers were polled early on about how what length of barrier they desired to preserve. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian edge, near where a local resident managed to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the border was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Installations

2 guard towers are maintained alongside a set of displays illustrating the most dramatic dates in the community’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to look after their produce; the partner could work the harvesting machine but not the two, lest they sought to escape. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but more than two times more individuals (exceeding 300) died seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to see annually, binoculars in possession, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the television series, a television program about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed interest.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, movie theater and sizable car park – is expected to