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An creek so low you barely got your feet wet split a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and before their state had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers started commemorating their history. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Speaking to the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Background

Even at its founding in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk never stood in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the same tavern, going to the very same place of worship and placing their kids to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they took over the whole village, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans convinced them to withdraw across the stream. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as limitations tightened they were required to present identity papers, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was built, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side waving and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a Bavarian villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his working life developing it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how how long a section structure they desired to preserve. They opted for a section on the western fringe, close to where one of their own was able to get away in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Conserved Structures

2 observation towers are maintained together with a series of exhibits depicting the most significant events in the community’s history. As we walk, the director lists the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required particular approval to tend to their crops; the partner could work the combine harvester but never the pair, in case they tried to flee. Armed guards kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The border between West Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most, but more than twice as many persons (exceeding 300) were killed trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. Roughly 15k visited every year, optical devices in hand, to look – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, the television series, a TV series about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Modern Changes

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, movie theater and large vehicle area – is probable to