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A creek so shallow you barely got your ankles wet split a community for in excess of four decades. By an accident of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by pine forests, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Months after their own division was opened, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people began memorialising their history. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the villagers who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which tore families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the very same pub, attending the identical place of worship and sending their kids to the same learning center.

Post-War Division

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians erected wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they seized the whole community, establishing their command in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a while, residents could still jump across, though as controls became stricter they were required to display ID, despite the fact that each person understood who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Frontier Controls

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were banned. One woman was added to a East German secret police watch list for replying “back at you” to a West German local who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time building it. Locals were polled early on about how how long a section wall they desired to maintain. They opted for a section on the western perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the border was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

Two guard towers are preserved together with a collection of displays showing the most impactful moments in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to tend to their crops; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Background

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most, but over twice as many individuals (well over 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director tells me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They did not supported the communist regime nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of destination. About 15k came to see every year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary community like Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Current Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, boutique, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is expected to