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A stream so low you hardly got your feet wet separated a village for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own division was torn down, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people started documenting their history. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely finished. Speaking to the residents who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which tore families apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which ripped relatives asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the community straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the quirk never stood in the way of the residents socializing in the identical tavern, going to the same place of worship and placing their children to the identical educational institution.

After the War Split

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the stream. For a year they took over the entire village, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a while, locals could continue to cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to show identity papers, although all knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The residents could still view each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were banned. A female resident was added to a Stasi surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a western local who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his working life creating it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how much wall they wished to maintain. They opted for a portion on the western perimeter, adjacent to where a local resident was able to flee in the dead of night with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Structures

2 observation towers are maintained alongside a collection of exhibits illustrating the most dramatic dates in the community’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required specific authorization to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but not the pair, for fear that they sought to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but more than twice as many people (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of efforts to cross failed.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and tending to their fields. They neither supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of site of interest. About 15,000 came to see every year, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and large vehicle area – is likely to