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An stream so low you scarcely got your ankles wet split a village for more than four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops called it Small Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own division was torn down, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a collection of local people began commemorating their history. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Telling the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an cruel split, which tore households asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped families apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals gathering in the identical pub, attending the identical church and enrolling their young ones to the very same educational institution.

After the War Split

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians installed timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they seized the complete village, establishing their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a while, locals could still jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to display ID, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still see each other by scaling slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. One woman was placed on a East German secret police watch list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his working life creating it. Residents were consulted early on about how much wall they wished to keep. They selected a section on the western edge, near where one of their own managed to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Installations

Two watchtowers are preserved in addition to a set of exhibits depicting the most impactful moments in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director lists the restrictions: not a single person could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to look after their crops; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, in case they attempted to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Context

The boundary between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but more than two times more persons (more than 300) lost their lives seeking to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. the director tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They neither backed the socialist government nor opposed it, the director states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand visited each year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, 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 resembling Mödlareuth, led to new curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and big car park – is expected to