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A brook so shallow you barely got your feet wet divided a community for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and before their country had become one in 1990, a collection of local people started memorialising their history. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely ready. Speaking to the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which pulled households apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family best known for assigning all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the locals gathering in the identical tavern, attending the very same church and enrolling their kids to the very same educational institution.

After the War Division

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they came, the Russians erected wood stakes by the creek. For a annual period they seized the complete village, creating their command in a house on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a while, locals could continue to cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to present identification, despite the fact that everyone knew who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The residents could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were banned. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for replying “likewise” to a West German villager who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I heard narratives such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his professional career building it. Residents were asked early on about how how long a section wall they desired to preserve. They selected a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where a villager managed to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the boundary was heavily reinforced.

Preserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are preserved in addition to a collection of tableaux showing the most impactful events in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to care for their crops; the spouse could work the combine harvester but never both, in case they sought to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Perspective

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but over two times more persons (more than 300) were killed trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to living in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their farms. They neither supported the communist regime nor opposed it, the director states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. About 15k visited every year, viewing tools in their hands, to stare – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional village like Mödlareuth, led to fresh curiosity.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and large parking lot – is probable to