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An brook so narrow you hardly got your feet wet divided a settlement for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, fields and stunning vistas, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own division was torn down, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of local people started commemorating their past. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely ready. Speaking to the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were observers of an brutal split, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for bestowing all its men the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk never stood in the path of the residents gathering in the identical tavern, going to the same religious building and placing their children to the same educational institution.

After the War Split

Then came the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the brook. For a year they seized the entire hamlet, creating their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to pull back across the creek. For a while, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to present identification, although all knew who they were, and to go back at night.

Increase of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side waving and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for replying “same to you” to a West German resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his occupational time creating it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they wished to preserve. They opted for a section on the western perimeter, near where a villager succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the frontier was heavily reinforced.

Preserved Installations

2 guard towers are preserved together with a set of exhibits showing the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, Lebergen enumerates the rules: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to look after their crops; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Background

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but in excess of two times more individuals (well over 300) died attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by avoiding attention and caring for their farms. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the village became a type of destination. About 15,000 came to visit every year, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the television series, a television program about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, cinema room and sizable parking lot – is likely to