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An creek so shallow you hardly got your feet wet separated a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own division was opened, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents began commemorating their history. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely prepared. Addressing the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an cruel split, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Origins

Right from its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the oddity never stood in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the very same pub, visiting the very same church and enrolling their young ones to the same school.

After the War Division

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Russians erected wood stakes by the stream. For a year they occupied the whole community, creating their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to retreat back over the creek. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as limitations tightened they were required to display identification, even though all was aware who they were, and to come back at night.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could continue to view each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and shouting were forbidden. A local woman was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a western resident who said her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard accounts such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how much structure they wished to maintain. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian edge, near where a villager managed to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Buildings

2 watchtowers are maintained alongside a series of tableaux depicting the most dramatic events in the community’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to look after their produce; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they sought to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Broader Background

The frontier between West Germany and the GDR extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but over twice as many individuals (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They neither backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a type of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand came to see each year, viewing tools in their hands, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after unification, the TV show, a television program about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, boutique, cinema room and big car park – is probable to