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A creek so shallow you hardly got your feet wet separated a community for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a partition. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a collection of residents began commemorating their history. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Addressing the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an cruel split, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the same tavern, going to the very same church and enrolling their children to the very same learning center.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the creek. For a year they took over the entire village, creating their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to pull back across the creek. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were required to show identity papers, even though each person knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The residents could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were banned. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for answering “back at you” to a West German local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how much wall they desired to preserve. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian fringe, close to where a villager was able to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the border was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of observation towers are conserved together with a series of exhibits depicting the most dramatic moments in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, the director enumerates the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to look after their produce; the partner could operate the combine harvester but never the two, for fear that they attempted to flee. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Perspective

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but in excess of two times more people (well over 300) were killed trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a type of destination. Approximately 15k came to see every year, binoculars in hand, to look – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a television program about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Modern Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and sizable car park – is probable to