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A creek so narrow you barely got your ankles wet separated a community for over four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by evergreen groves, pastures and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people started documenting their past. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Speaking to the villagers who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

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

Historical Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the very same pub, attending the very same place of worship and sending their young ones to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Then came the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the entire village, establishing their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to pull back across the brook. For a time, locals could still cross over, though as controls increased they were obliged to present identity papers, even though all understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Escalation of Boundary Measures

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could continue to see each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were prohibited. One woman was added to a East German secret police watch list for answering “likewise” to a western resident who wished her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard narratives such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Residents were polled early on about how how long a section structure they wished to keep. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian fringe, adjacent to where a local resident was able to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the frontier was heavily fortified.

Conserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are conserved together with a collection of displays depicting the most impactful moments in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the rules: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed particular approval to care for their fields; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, for fear that they tried to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but in excess of two times more people (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director reminds me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They did not backed the communist regime nor resisted it, the director explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. About fifteen thousand came to see annually, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

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

Present-Day Evolutions

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and large parking lot – is probable to