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A creek so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a community for more than four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by pine forests, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of villagers started commemorating their past. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Telling the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which ripped households apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity did not stand in the way of the residents socializing in the same pub, going to the same church and placing their young ones to the very same learning center.

Post-War Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Russians installed wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they seized the complete village, creating their control center in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to present identification, although each person knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could still see each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side signaling and shouting were prohibited. One woman was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

I was told stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated much of his working life developing it. Locals were consulted at an early stage about how what length of structure they wished to keep. They opted for a section on the Bavarian fringe, close to where one of their own was able to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are conserved alongside a series of displays showing the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, the director details the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to care for their crops; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but not both, for fear that they sought to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but more than two times more persons (exceeding 300) were killed attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of site of interest. Roughly 15k came to visit annually, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and large parking lot – is probable to