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An brook so narrow you hardly got your feet wet separated a settlement for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a group of residents started documenting their history. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which tore households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which pulled families into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most famous for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity never stood in the way of the locals socializing in the identical inn, visiting the very same church and sending their kids to the very same school.

Post-War Division

Then came the second world war. The moment they came, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the whole village, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to pull back back over the creek. For a while, villagers could still hop over, though as controls increased they were required to show identity papers, even though each person was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The villagers could still view each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were banned. A local woman was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “likewise” to a western resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I was told narratives including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career building it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they desired to maintain. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, near where one of their own succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the boundary was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Installations

A pair of guard towers are preserved in addition to a collection of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic moments in the community’s chronicle. As we walk, the director lists the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed specific authorization to care for their crops; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, in case they tried to flee. Military personnel stood watch.

Larger Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the greatest, but more than double the number individuals (well over 300) died trying to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. the director informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They did not supported the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to see each year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, led to fresh curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is likely to