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A creek so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet split a village for over four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a assembly of residents set about memorialising their history. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely finished. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which pulled households apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel split, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for giving all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the locals drinking in the same inn, attending the same church and enrolling their kids to the same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the stream. For a annual period they seized the entire village, setting up their headquarters in a house on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to withdraw across the stream. For a time, residents could still jump across, though as controls increased they were obliged to display identity papers, even though everyone knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was erected, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The residents could continue to view each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were forbidden. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “likewise” to a western villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I was told accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his working life creating it. Locals were asked early on about how what length of structure they wished to maintain. They selected a stretch on the west fringe, near where a local resident managed to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Preserved Buildings

Two observation towers are maintained in addition to a collection of exhibits showing the most dramatic events in the village’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed special permission to look after their produce; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but not the pair, for fear that they attempted to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but more than twice as many persons (well over 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their farms. They neither backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. Approximately 15k came to visit every year, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Modern Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and big vehicle area – is expected to