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A brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a settlement for over four decades. By an accident of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, fields and stunning vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents started documenting their past. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Addressing the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which tore households apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel division, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most famous for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the identical tavern, going to the very same religious building and sending their young ones to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the whole village, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to pull back across the creek. For a while, locals could still jump across, though as controls increased they were forced to show identity papers, although everyone was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The villagers could still see each other by climbing hills, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “likewise” to a Bavarian villager who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Development

I was told narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his working life creating it. Residents were polled in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they desired to keep. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the border was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Installations

2 guard towers are maintained in addition to a collection of exhibits showing the most dramatic events in the village’s history. As we move, the director lists the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents required specific authorization to care for their crops; the partner could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, lest they sought to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Broader Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the greatest, but in excess of double the number individuals (more than 300) died seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a type of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit annually, optical devices in their hands, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a television program about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, film screening area and big vehicle area – is probable to