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A brook so low you barely got your ankles wet separated a village for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of villagers began memorialising their heritage. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely ready. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an cruel separation, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which ripped families apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Past Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the residents drinking in the identical inn, attending the same religious building and enrolling their children to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the World War II. Immediately after they came, the Russians put up wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the entire hamlet, creating their command in a building on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a while, locals could continue to cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to show identification, although all was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side signaling and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me accounts such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his working life building it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how much wall they desired to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where a villager was able to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the border was significantly strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

Two guard towers are conserved alongside a series of exhibits illustrating the most impactful moments in the community’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to tend to their produce; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but never the pair, in case they sought to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but over double the number people (exceeding 300) died seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, the director states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to visit every year, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Present-Day Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is probable to