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A creek so low you scarcely got your feet wet divided a settlement for more than four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Small Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a collection of residents set about commemorating their history. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely finished. Addressing the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which pulled households apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the locals drinking in the identical inn, visiting the identical religious building and placing their children to the very same school.

Following WWII Division

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they took over the whole community, establishing their command in a house on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans convinced them to withdraw back over the brook. For a period, residents could still cross over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to present identification, even though each person was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his working life creating it. Villagers were asked early on about how what length of barrier they wished to maintain. They chose a portion on the west edge, near where a local resident succeeded to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the border was heavily fortified.

Maintained Buildings

Two guard towers are preserved together with a set of tableaux depicting the most dramatic dates in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Farmers needed particular approval to look after their crops; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, for fear that they attempted to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but over two times more individuals (well over 300) lost their lives seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of belief systems by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They neither backed the socialist government nor fought it, the director states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to see annually, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a television program about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, store, cinema room and large vehicle area – is probable to