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A creek so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet split a settlement for more than four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a group of villagers set about memorialising their history. The work is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an cruel split, which pulled relatives apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk never stood in the way of the locals drinking in the very same inn, visiting the identical religious building and sending their young ones to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they took over the entire village, establishing their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a period, residents could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were forced to present identification, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to go back at night.

Increase of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with mines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could continue to observe each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for answering “back at you” to a western villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career building it. Locals were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of wall they wanted to maintain. They chose a section on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Conserved Installations

2 observation towers are maintained alongside a set of displays showing the most significant moments in the community’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed special permission to tend to their produce; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but never the pair, in case they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Larger Background

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but in excess of double the number individuals (well over 300) died trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They neither backed the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of site of interest. About fifteen thousand came to see every year, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Current Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, film screening area and sizable car park – is probable to