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A creek so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by pine forests, fields and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a partition. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a collection of residents set about memorialising their history. The work is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Addressing the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Context

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most famous for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the same inn, visiting the very same church and sending their children to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Division

Then came the World War II. The moment they came, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they occupied the complete hamlet, creating their headquarters in a house on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a time, residents could still jump across, though as restrictions increased they were forced to display identification, even though everyone understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was built, with landmines, tank traps and observation points. The residents could continue to observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for responding “back at you” to a West German local who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his occupational time building it. Villagers were asked early on about how what length of structure they wished to preserve. They chose a stretch on the west fringe, adjacent to where one of their own was able to get away in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the border was substantially fortified.

Preserved Structures

A pair of watchtowers are maintained together with a collection of displays depicting the most significant moments in the village’s past. As we stroll, the director enumerates the rules: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents needed special permission to care for their fields; the spouse could use the agricultural equipment but never the two, for fear that they sought to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Larger Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but more than two times more individuals (well over 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between a pair of belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They did not supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director states.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit annually, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Present-Day Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and large car park – is likely to