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A creek so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers started commemorating their history. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely finished. Addressing the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal split, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel division, which pulled families into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Historical Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house best known for giving all its men the name Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the quirk never stood in the way of the locals drinking in the very same inn, attending the same place of worship and placing their young ones to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the complete village, establishing their control center in a house on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers persuaded them to retreat back over the stream. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to present identification, even though all knew who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were banned. A local woman was added to a Stasi monitoring list for responding “back at you” to a West German villager who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how how long a section structure they wished to preserve. They opted for a section on the western edge, adjacent to where one of their own managed to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the boundary was substantially fortified.

Preserved Buildings

Two observation towers are preserved together with a collection of displays illustrating the most significant events in the community’s past. As we move, the director details the rules: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to tend to their fields; the partner could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, lest they sought to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Context

The border between Western Germany and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but over double the number individuals (exceeding 300) were killed attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. the director tells me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They neither backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. About 15,000 visited annually, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

25 years after unification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up community similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Present-Day Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, film screening area and large vehicle area – is likely to