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A stream so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet split a village for more than four decades. By an accident of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising History

Months after their own division was breached, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a group of local people set about commemorating their history. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely finished. Speaking to the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an cruel split, which ripped families asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which ripped households apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the residents drinking in the identical pub, attending the very same religious building and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the entire village, creating their command in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a while, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to show ID, even though everyone knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could continue to observe each other by climbing hills, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were banned. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for answering “likewise” to a West German villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his occupational time building it. Locals were consulted early on about how much structure they desired to maintain. They selected a section on the western edge, near where a villager succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Conserved Installations

Two guard towers are conserved together with a set of displays depicting the most significant moments in the hamlet’s history. As we move, the director lists the rules: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to look after their crops; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but not the pair, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Larger Context

The boundary between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to living in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a kind of destination. Approximately fifteen thousand visited annually, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

25 years after merger, the television series, a television program about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and large vehicle area – is expected to