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A stream so low you hardly got your feet wet split a village for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a collection of local people set about documenting their history. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite finished. Addressing the locals who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which tore families apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Right from its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the peculiarity did not stand in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the identical pub, visiting the same religious building and enrolling their young ones to the identical educational institution.

Post-War Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the entire hamlet, creating their control center in a building on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw back over the creek. For a time, locals could still cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to present identification, despite the fact that everyone understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The locals could still see each other by climbing hills, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a Stasi monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his occupational time creating it. Residents were asked early on about how how long a section wall they wanted to preserve. They selected a section on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where a villager succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Installations

A pair of watchtowers are conserved alongside a set of exhibits illustrating the most impactful events in the village’s past. As we stroll, Lebergen enumerates the rules: no one could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to look after their crops; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, in case they tried to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Context

The frontier between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the greatest, but over twice as many individuals (exceeding 300) died seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their land. They neither backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of destination. Approximately 15k visited each year, binoculars in hand, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, the television series, a television program about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, led to new curiosity.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and large parking lot – is likely to