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An creek so narrow you barely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for in excess of four decades. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own division was breached, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a group of local people set about documenting their past. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Historical Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for assigning all its men the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the identical pub, visiting the same place of worship and enrolling their kids to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Division

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the creek. For a year they occupied the whole community, setting up their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to pull back to the other side of the brook. For a period, locals could continue to jump across, though as limitations increased they were forced to present ID, despite the fact that everyone understood who they were, and to return at after dark.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could continue to see each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side signaling and shouting were banned. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a western resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his working life developing it. Villagers were consulted early on about how what length of structure they wished to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian edge, close to where a villager succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was significantly fortified.

Preserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are preserved in addition to a collection of exhibits showing the most significant events in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern enumerates the rules: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to care for their fields; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, for fear that they attempted to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR stretched nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the greatest, but over double the number people (more than 300) were killed trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between two political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They did not supported the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the village became a type of site of interest. Roughly 15k came to visit every year, optical devices in hand, to stare – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed interest.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is probable to