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An brook so shallow you barely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own division was opened, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of villagers started commemorating their past. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Telling the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an cruel division, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Historical Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the village straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk did not stand in the path of the residents drinking in the identical inn, attending the same place of worship and enrolling their children to the identical school.

Post-War Separation

Then came the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the stream. For a year they took over the complete community, creating their command in a building on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans urged them to retreat back over the stream. For a period, locals could continue to hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to display ID, even though each person was aware who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could still observe each other by scaling hills, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were banned. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

It was related to me accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his occupational time building it. Residents were polled early on about how how long a section barrier they wanted to keep. They selected a portion on the west edge, near where a villager was able to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Installations

2 observation towers are maintained together with a set of tableaux illustrating the most impactful events in the hamlet’s history. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed particular approval to care for their produce; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but never both, lest they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the greatest, but in excess of twice as many persons (more than 300) were killed trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. the director informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to living in the grey zone between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They neither supported the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit annually, optical devices in possession, to look – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in new interest.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is likely to