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A brook so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a village for over four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Several months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a collection of residents began commemorating their past. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Telling the locals who experienced the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel division, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the identical inn, visiting the same church and placing their kids to the very same school.

Following WWII Split

Then came the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the entire community, creating their command in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to withdraw across the creek. For a time, locals could continue to cross over, though as controls increased they were required to display identity papers, even though everyone knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Border Measures

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could still see each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. One woman was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

It was related to me narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Residents were polled early on about how much structure they wished to keep. They selected a section on the Bavarian fringe, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the frontier was heavily fortified.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of watchtowers are preserved alongside a set of exhibits illustrating the most impactful moments in the hamlet’s history. As we move, Lebergen enumerates the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required special permission to look after their crops; the spouse could work the combine harvester but not both, lest they tried to flee. Military personnel stood watch.

Larger Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the most, but in excess of double the number people (more than 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. the director reminds me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by avoiding attention and caring for their farms. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of pilgrimage. Roughly fifteen thousand visited every year, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary village resembling Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Current Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, store, film screening area and big parking lot – is likely to