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A creek so low you barely got your feet wet divided a community for in excess of four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own wall was torn down, and before their country had unified again in 1990, a group of local people set about documenting their past. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the locals who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which ripped households asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which tore households asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the way of the residents drinking in the very same tavern, visiting the very same church and enrolling their kids to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces erected timber poles by the creek. For a year they took over the complete hamlet, creating their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to withdraw across the stream. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as limitations increased they were forced to show identification, although everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Controls

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side waving and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a East German secret police monitoring list for responding “same to you” to a West German resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told narratives like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wished to keep. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the border was heavily fortified.

Preserved Buildings

A pair of observation towers are conserved alongside a collection of exhibits depicting the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the frontier. Farmers required specific authorization to look after their crops; the partner could operate the combine harvester but never the two, in case they tried to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but over double the number people (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. the director reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a type of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k visited every year, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Present-Day Changes

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and sizable car park – is likely to