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A creek so low you hardly got your feet wet split a community for in excess of four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers set about documenting their heritage. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Speaking to the villagers who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore households asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

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

Past Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for assigning all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the way of the residents drinking in the same pub, attending the identical place of worship and placing their young ones to the same educational institution.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russians put up wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the whole community, establishing their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers persuaded them to pull back across the brook. For a time, locals could still cross over, though as controls became stricter they were forced to present ID, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could still view each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side waving and calling out were forbidden. One woman was added to a Stasi surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard accounts such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his working life developing it. Villagers were polled early on about how how long a section structure they desired to maintain. They selected a stretch on the west fringe, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

Two observation towers are preserved alongside a set of displays illustrating the most impactful dates in the village’s past. As we walk, the director enumerates the rules: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their fields; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but not the pair, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Background

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of two times more people (exceeding 300) died seeking to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. About 15,000 visited every year, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a imaginary hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, film screening area and big vehicle area – is likely to