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A creek so low you barely got your ankles wet separated a community for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, fields and stunning scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a assembly of residents began documenting their heritage. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely ready. Speaking to the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which tore relatives into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for giving all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the residents gathering in the same inn, going to the identical church and enrolling their young ones to the identical learning center.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces installed wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the whole community, creating their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the brook. For a while, locals could continue to hop over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to show identification, although all knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could continue to view each other by scaling hills, but on the eastern side waving and yelling were forbidden. One woman was added to a Stasi surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a West German villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his occupational time developing it. Locals were consulted at an early stage about how much barrier they desired to preserve. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian fringe, adjacent to where a local resident managed to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, after which the border was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Structures

A pair of guard towers are maintained in addition to a set of displays illustrating the most significant dates in the hamlet’s past. As we move, the director details the rules: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents required special permission to care for their crops; the spouse could work the harvesting machine but not the pair, in case they sought to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Context

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most frequently, but more than two times more people (more than 300) died seeking to pass over it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their farms. They neither backed the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. Roughly 15,000 visited each year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and sizable parking lot – is expected to