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A brook so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a village for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Memorialising History

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their state had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers began documenting their history. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Telling the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman split, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk never stood in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the identical tavern, visiting the identical place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the identical learning center.

Post-War Split

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the creek. For a year they occupied the entire village, creating their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to pull back back over the creek. For a time, residents could continue to hop over, though as controls became stricter they were required to present identity papers, even though each person understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could continue to see each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were banned. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated much of his working life building it. Residents were asked early on about how what length of structure they wished to maintain. They chose a portion on the Bavarian fringe, near where one of their own was able to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the border was heavily reinforced.

Preserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are maintained together with a set of tableaux illustrating the most significant events in the village’s chronicle. As we move, the director details the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the border. Farmers had to obtain particular approval to care for their produce; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but never the two, in case they sought to escape. Armed guards kept guard.

Wider Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but over double the number persons (more than 300) died attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern tells me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor fought it, the director states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit annually, binoculars in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and sizable car park – is probable to