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A stream so low you hardly got your feet wet separated a community for over four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Months after their own division was opened, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people started commemorating their past. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which ripped families apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an brutal separation, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for assigning all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same tavern, attending the very same religious building and enrolling their young ones to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the creek. For a year they took over the complete village, creating their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a period, villagers could still jump across, though as controls increased they were obliged to present ID, even though everyone understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could still view each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side waving and yelling were banned. One woman was put on a Stasi monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a western resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his working life developing it. Villagers were consulted early on about how what length of wall they desired to preserve. They chose a portion on the western fringe, near where one of their own succeeded to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the border was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are preserved alongside a set of displays illustrating the most impactful moments in the village’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Farmers had to obtain special permission to look after their crops; the husband or wife could work the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, lest they attempted to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Background

The border between Western Germany and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but over twice as many individuals (exceeding 300) died trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director reminds me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They did not supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15,000 came to see annually, optical devices in hand, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up community similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Modern Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and sizable car park – is expected to