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A creek so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents set about memorialising their past. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely ready. Telling the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel division, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Background

Right from its founding in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its men the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the locals socializing in the same tavern, visiting the same place of worship and sending their kids to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the brook. For a year they seized the whole hamlet, creating their control center in a house on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a period, residents could continue to hop over, though as limitations tightened they were required to display identity papers, although everyone knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The residents could still view each other by climbing hills, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. A local woman was added to a Stasi watch list for responding “same to you” to a western resident who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Creation

I was told stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his working life building it. Villagers were polled early on about how what length of wall they wished to keep. They chose a stretch on the west perimeter, near where a villager managed to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, after which the boundary was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

Two watchtowers are maintained alongside a collection of exhibits illustrating the most significant events in the village’s history. As we stroll, Lebergen lists the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to care for their produce; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but not the two, for fear that they attempted to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Context

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but more than double the number people (more than 300) died trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to residing in the ambiguous area between two political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They neither supported the socialist government nor fought it, the director states.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. Approximately 15,000 visited annually, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and large car park – is expected to