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An stream so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a community for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, fields and stunning vistas, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their country had become one in 1990, a group of villagers began commemorating their history. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely ready. Addressing the residents who lived through the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which pulled households asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which pulled relatives asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Right from its creation in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals gathering in the very same pub, attending the same place of worship and sending their young ones to the same school.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russians erected wooden posts by the brook. For a year they took over the whole hamlet, creating their headquarters in a house on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to withdraw across the brook. For a time, residents could continue to cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to display identification, even though each person knew who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could still see each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side signaling and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was added to a Stasi surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian local who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

I heard narratives such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wished to maintain. They chose a section on the west perimeter, adjacent to where a local resident managed to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the border was substantially strengthened.

Maintained Structures

2 observation towers are maintained in addition to a collection of exhibits illustrating the most dramatic moments in the village’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required special permission to look after their fields; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but not the two, lest they tried to flee. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Background

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many people (exceeding 300) died seeking to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They did not supported the communist regime nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a kind of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit every year, binoculars in their hands, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Current Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and sizable vehicle area – is likely to