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An stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a village for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own division was torn down, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people set about commemorating their heritage. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Telling the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the residents socializing in the very same inn, visiting the identical church and placing their kids to the identical school.

Post-War Split

Next arrived the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the brook. For a year they seized the entire community, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a period, locals could still jump across, though as controls tightened they were required to present identification, even though everyone knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could continue to view each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side waving and yelling were forbidden. A local woman was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a West German resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his occupational time developing it. Residents were asked early on about how how long a section structure they desired to preserve. They chose a portion on the west fringe, adjacent to where a local resident was able to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, after which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Installations

Two watchtowers are conserved in addition to a series of displays showing the most impactful moments in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, Lebergen enumerates the rules: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents needed specific authorization to look after their fields; the partner could use the harvesting machine but never the pair, in case they tried to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but more than double the number persons (more than 300) lost their lives trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that 95% of escape attempts failed.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k came to visit every year, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional village like Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and sizable car park – is probable to