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A creek so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a settlement for over four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, fields and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

A few months after their own division was torn down, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a collection of residents set about memorialising their past. The work is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely ready. Telling the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore relatives asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel division, which ripped families asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk never stood in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the same inn, going to the identical religious building and enrolling their children to the very same learning center.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. As soon as they appeared, the Russians put up wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they took over the entire hamlet, creating their command in a building on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the brook. For a time, locals could continue to cross over, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to show identification, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could still view each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were banned. A female resident was put on a Stasi surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a western local who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his professional career developing it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how much wall they wished to keep. They opted for a section on the Bavarian edge, close to where a villager was able to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was significantly fortified.

Conserved Installations

2 guard towers are conserved together with a set of tableaux depicting the most significant dates in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Farmers needed particular approval to tend to their produce; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but never both, lest they attempted to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Perspective

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but in excess of twice as many persons (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They nor did they endorsed the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a type of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand visited annually, optical devices in hand, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up village similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and large car park – is probable to