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An brook so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a village for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers started commemorating their past. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show wasn’t quite prepared. Speaking to the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Background

Even at its founding in 1810, the village straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most famous for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the residents gathering in the identical pub, visiting the very same religious building and enrolling their children to the very same learning center.

Post-War Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the complete community, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to retreat across the stream. For a time, villagers could continue to jump across, though as controls increased they were obliged to present ID, even though all was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Frontier Measures

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could still view each other by ascending hills, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was put on a East German secret police watch list for answering “same to you” to a western local who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a large part of his working life building it. Villagers were consulted early on about how much structure they wanted to maintain. They selected a section on the Bavarian edge, near where a local resident managed to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, after which the border was substantially reinforced.

Conserved Structures

2 observation towers are conserved together with a set of displays depicting the most dramatic dates in the village’s history. As we stroll, Lebergen lists the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required particular approval to care for their fields; the partner could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances both, in case they attempted to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of two times more individuals (well over 300) died attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between a pair of political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They did not backed the socialist government nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand visited every year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – 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 television series, a TV series about a fictional hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, caused fresh interest.

Modern Evolutions

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and big parking lot – is expected to