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An brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet split a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a group of local people set about commemorating their heritage. The effort is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not entirely prepared. Addressing the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore households apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for bestowing all its men the title Heinrich and counting them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the oddity never stood in the path of the locals socializing in the same tavern, visiting the same church and placing their children to the identical educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russians put up wood stakes by the creek. For a year they took over the complete village, creating their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw back over the brook. For a time, locals could still cross over, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to present identification, even though all knew who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could still observe each other by climbing hills, but on the east side waving and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was put on a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a Bavarian villager who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

I was told accounts such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his occupational time building it. Locals were asked early on about how what length of barrier they wanted to preserve. They opted for a section on the Bavarian fringe, near where a local resident managed to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was heavily fortified.

Conserved Installations

Two watchtowers are preserved in addition to a series of exhibits illustrating the most impactful dates in the community’s past. As we stroll, the director lists the rules: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required special permission to look after their produce; the partner could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances both, in case they tried to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Broader Context

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but more than twice as many persons (more than 300) died seeking to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director informs me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between two political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their farms. They neither supported the communist regime nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of site of interest. Approximately 15,000 visited each year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Modern Changes

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