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A creek so narrow you hardly got your feet wet divided a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers set about memorialising their past. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Telling the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the same inn, attending the identical religious building and sending their kids to the same school.

Post-War Split

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians put up timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the whole community, creating their command in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans persuaded them to retreat back over the stream. For a period, locals could still jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to show identification, although everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The villagers could still view each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were banned. A female resident was placed on a East German secret police watch list for replying “back at you” to a western local who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his occupational time developing it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how what length of wall they desired to preserve. They selected a section on the west fringe, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the border was heavily fortified.

Preserved Installations

2 observation towers are preserved in addition to a series of tableaux depicting the most significant moments in the community’s chronicle. As we stroll, Lebergen details the rules: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to care for their produce; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but not the pair, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Background

The frontier between West Germany and the GDR ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but in excess of two times more individuals (well over 300) died seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. the director informs me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their land. They did not backed the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit every year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary village resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Modern Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, film screening area and big parking lot – is expected to