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An creek so low you hardly got your feet wet separated a community for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of villagers began commemorating their history. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Addressing the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore families asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Past Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the residents drinking in the very same tavern, visiting the same place of worship and sending their young ones to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Division

Then came the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the stream. For a year they occupied the entire community, setting up their headquarters in a building on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to withdraw across the creek. For a time, villagers could still jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were required to display ID, even though everyone knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could still see each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were banned. One woman was put on a Stasi watch list for replying “likewise” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time building it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how much barrier they wanted to keep. They chose a portion on the west edge, near where one of their own succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Installations

A pair of guard towers are preserved alongside a collection of exhibits depicting the most impactful dates in the village’s history. As we stroll, Lebergen lists the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to tend to their crops; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but not the pair, for fear that they tried to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of two times more persons (well over 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Hamlet Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adapted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. About fifteen thousand visited each year, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Modern Changes

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