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A brook so narrow you barely got your ankles wet split a village for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents set about documenting their past. The effort is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Addressing the locals who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Background

Right from its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the way of the residents drinking in the same tavern, visiting the same church and enrolling their young ones to the identical learning center.

Post-War Division

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians installed wood stakes by the stream. For a year they took over the whole community, setting up their command in a house on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans urged them to withdraw back over the brook. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to show ID, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could still see each other by climbing hills, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were banned. A local woman was added to a Stasi surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time building it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how much wall they wished to preserve. They chose a portion on the Bavarian fringe, close to where one of their own managed to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the border was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Buildings

2 guard towers are maintained alongside a set of exhibits illustrating the most significant events in the village’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the border. Farmers required specific authorization to tend to their crops; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but not the two, in case they attempted to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Wider Background

The border between Western Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but in excess of double the number persons (well over 300) died seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the ambiguous area between a pair of belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their farms. They did not supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of pilgrimage. Approximately 15,000 visited each year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Current Changes

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and big parking lot – is expected to