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An stream so low you scarcely got your feet wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by pine forests, fields and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Several months after their own division was opened, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of local people started documenting their past. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the residents who experienced the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Past Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most famous for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk did not stand in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the identical inn, visiting the identical religious building and sending their kids to the identical educational institution.

Post-War Split

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces installed wooden posts by the creek. For a year they seized the entire village, creating their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans urged them to retreat across the creek. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to present identity papers, despite the fact that each person understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Escalation of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side waving and calling out were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian local who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his working life developing it. Residents were polled at an early stage about how much barrier they wished to keep. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was heavily fortified.

Maintained Installations

Two guard towers are maintained in addition to a collection of tableaux depicting the most impactful events in the community’s past. As we walk, the director enumerates the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to tend to their fields; the partner could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances both, for fear that they tried to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but more than double the number people (well over 300) died attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor fought it, the director states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a kind of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit each year, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the television series, a television program about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and large car park – is expected to