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A brook so low you barely got your feet wet divided a village for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own wall was torn down, and before their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents began commemorating their past. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not completely ready. Telling the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel division, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

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

Historical Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the residents gathering in the very same inn, going to the same religious building and sending their children to the same learning center.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they seized the entire community, establishing their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces persuaded them to pull back across the stream. For a while, villagers could still cross over, though as restrictions increased they were required to present identification, although each person was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with mines, tank traps and watchtowers. The residents could continue to observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were prohibited. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for answering “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who said her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career building it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how what length of wall they wanted to preserve. They selected a section on the Bavarian edge, close to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the boundary was substantially fortified.

Preserved Buildings

A pair of watchtowers are maintained together with a set of exhibits illustrating the most significant events in the village’s past. As we move, Lebergen lists the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to look after their produce; the spouse could work the harvesting machine but not the pair, lest they attempted to flee. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but more than twice as many people (exceeding 300) died trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They neither backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. About 15,000 visited every year, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

25 years after unification, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, cinema room and sizable parking lot – is expected to