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An brook so shallow you barely got your feet wet separated a settlement for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a group of villagers set about commemorating their heritage. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Telling the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an brutal division, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Historical Origins

Even at its creation in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family best known for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the manner of the residents drinking in the same tavern, going to the identical church and placing their kids to the very same educational institution.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians put up wooden posts by the brook. For a year they occupied the complete community, establishing their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to show ID, although all understood who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could continue to see each other by scaling slopes, but on the eastern side waving and yelling were banned. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

It was related to me narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were asked early on about how what length of structure they wished to keep. They chose a portion on the Bavarian edge, near where a local resident was able to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Structures

2 observation towers are conserved in addition to a series of tableaux illustrating the most significant events in the village’s chronicle. As we move, the director enumerates the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to look after their produce; the husband or wife could work the harvesting machine but not both, in case they sought to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Larger Context

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but over two times more persons (well over 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. the director tells me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They neither backed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. About 15k came to see every year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after merger, the television series, a television program about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and sizable parking lot – is expected to