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An brook so shallow you barely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, pastures and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents started documenting their heritage. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely ready. Speaking to the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the locals socializing in the identical pub, going to the same religious building and placing their kids to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Russians installed wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they took over the entire community, establishing their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to pull back across the brook. For a period, locals could continue to cross over, though as controls increased they were required to display identification, even though each person knew who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Border Controls

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could continue to view each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for answering “same to you” to a West German resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his working life developing it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how how long a section wall they desired to preserve. They selected a portion on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where one of their own was able to get away in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the border was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

Two watchtowers are preserved together with a series of displays showing the most impactful moments in the hamlet’s past. As we move, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents required special permission to care for their produce; the partner could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances both, for fear that they attempted to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the greatest, but in excess of twice as many individuals (exceeding 300) were killed trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They neither endorsed the communist regime nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the village became a kind of site of interest. Roughly 15,000 came to visit each year, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Modern Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and big car park – is probable to