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An brook so low you barely got your ankles wet split a village for over four decades. By an accident of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was marked first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own division was opened, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people started commemorating their past. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel division, which pulled relatives apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Past Context

Even at its creation in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the very same pub, going to the identical place of worship and placing their children to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the whole community, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a time, residents could still cross over, though as controls tightened they were forced to display ID, although all understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could still view each other by ascending slopes, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were forbidden. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “same to you” to a West German local who wished her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his working life building it. Locals were asked early on about how much barrier they wished to keep. They selected a section on the western perimeter, near where one of their own managed to flee in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, after which the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Installations

2 observation towers are maintained together with a set of exhibits illustrating the most impactful moments in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, Lebergen details the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to look after their produce; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but never the pair, lest they tried to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but over double the number individuals (well over 300) died attempting to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a type of destination. Approximately 15,000 came to see each year, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a television program about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, resulted in new interest.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and big car park – is probable to