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An stream so shallow you barely got your feet wet separated a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own division was opened, and before their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people started commemorating their heritage. The effort is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely finished. Telling the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the identical tavern, attending the very same religious building and placing their young ones to the same learning center.

Post-War Division

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Russians erected wood stakes by the brook. For a year they took over the whole hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to retreat across the stream. For a time, residents could still jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to show ID, although each person was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was erected, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could still see each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was added to a Stasi monitoring list for answering “likewise” to a Bavarian local who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his working life building it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how much structure they wished to preserve. They selected a portion on the western perimeter, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Buildings

Two guard towers are maintained together with a collection of exhibits showing the most impactful moments in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, the director lists the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Farmers had to obtain particular approval to tend to their fields; the husband or wife could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, in case they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but over two times more individuals (more than 300) died attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between a pair of belief systems by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They neither backed the socialist government nor resisted it, the director states.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of destination. Roughly 15,000 visited every year, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, caused new curiosity.

Current Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and large parking lot – is probable to