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A creek so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a village for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own barrier was opened, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a group of residents set about documenting their past. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not completely ready. Addressing the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which ripped households asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Background

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the very same pub, going to the same church and sending their kids to the same school.

Post-War Split

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians erected wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the whole hamlet, setting up their command in a house on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to retreat across the brook. For a time, residents could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were required to present ID, even though each person was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Escalation of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could continue to see each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side signaling and yelling were prohibited. One woman was added to a East German secret police watch list for responding “same to you” to a West German resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a large part of his professional career creating it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wished to keep. They opted for a section on the western perimeter, near where a local resident succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was substantially fortified.

Preserved Structures

Two guard towers are conserved alongside a set of exhibits showing the most significant dates in the community’s chronicle. As we move, the director details the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required particular approval to look after their fields; the spouse could work the harvesting machine but never both, lest they tried to flee. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but over two times more individuals (more than 300) lost their lives seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between a pair of belief systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They did not backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a type of destination. About fifteen thousand came to visit annually, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Current Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and big vehicle area – is expected to