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An creek so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet split a village for more than four decades. By an accident of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own division was opened, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a group of villagers started commemorating their heritage. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Speaking to the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel split, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Historical Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the very same inn, attending the very same place of worship and placing their young ones to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Division

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 whole hamlet, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to withdraw across the brook. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to display identity papers, despite the fact that each person understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Border Measures

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could continue to view each other by scaling hills, but on the east side waving and yelling were banned. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a West German local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his working life building it. Residents were polled at an early stage about how what length of barrier they desired to maintain. They selected a section on the west fringe, near where a local resident was able to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was heavily reinforced.

Maintained Installations

2 watchtowers are conserved together with a set of exhibits showing the most significant events in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, Lebergen details the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their fields; the partner could use the harvesting machine but never the two, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Background

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but over two times more persons (more than 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. the director informs me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k visited each year, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and large vehicle area – is probable to