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A brook so low you scarcely got your feet wet split a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own division was opened, and even before their state had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers set about commemorating their heritage. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely ready. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an cruel separation, which ripped households apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Even at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for assigning all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the residents drinking in the very same tavern, going to the identical church and enrolling their kids to the same learning center.

Post-War Separation

Then came the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Russians put up timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they took over the whole community, setting up their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to pull back across the creek. For a while, residents could still jump across, though as controls tightened they were obliged to present ID, although everyone understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could continue to see each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and shouting were banned. A female resident was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for answering “likewise” to a western villager who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me accounts such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his working life developing it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how much structure they desired to maintain. They opted for a portion on the western fringe, near where one of their own managed to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the boundary was significantly fortified.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of guard towers are preserved in addition to a set of exhibits showing the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to look after their fields; the husband or wife could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but in excess of double the number persons (well over 300) were killed trying to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to living in the ambiguous area between a pair of belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. About 15k came to see each year, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Modern Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and large parking lot – is probable to