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An brook so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a settlement for over four decades. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own division was breached, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a group of local people started memorialising their history. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite prepared. Speaking to the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel division, which ripped families apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for giving all its men the name Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the residents socializing in the very same inn, going to the same church and sending their children to the same learning center.

After the War Division

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the entire community, establishing their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a time, residents could still hop over, though as controls increased they were obliged to display identification, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the eastern side waving and yelling were banned. A local woman was put on a Stasi surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a western resident who said her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I heard accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Locals were consulted early on about how how long a section barrier they wished to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the west fringe, close to where a local resident managed to escape in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Maintained Buildings

Two observation towers are conserved in addition to a set of tableaux showing the most dramatic events in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, the director details the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Farmers had to obtain particular approval to care for their produce; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but not both, lest they tried to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but in excess of double the number individuals (well over 300) died trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director reminds me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They neither backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a type of destination. About 15,000 came to see each year, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and big vehicle area – is likely to