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A brook so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a settlement for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, fields and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own division was opened, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people started commemorating their heritage. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Speaking to the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

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

Bygone Origins

Even at its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the very same tavern, visiting the very same church and placing their children to the identical educational institution.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the stream. For a year they seized the entire community, creating their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw back over the brook. For a while, residents could still jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to present identification, even though everyone knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was erected, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still view each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side waving and calling out were prohibited. One woman was placed on a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his working life building it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how how long a section structure they desired to maintain. They opted for a portion on the western fringe, near where a local resident managed to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, after which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Structures

2 observation towers are preserved in addition to a set of tableaux showing the most impactful dates in the village’s past. As we stroll, the director enumerates the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the border. Farmers needed specific authorization to care for their fields; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they tried to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but over two times more people (well over 300) died trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They nor did they endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of destination. Roughly 15k visited each year, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a TV series about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Current Evolutions

The opening of the new museum – with a restaurant, shop, movie theater and large parking lot – is likely to