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A creek so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a settlement for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people set about documenting their past. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely finished. Telling the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which tore households asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

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

Past Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the way of the residents socializing in the same tavern, visiting the very same religious building and enrolling their kids to the identical learning center.

Post-War Separation

Then came the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops put up wood stakes by the brook. For a year they took over the entire hamlet, creating their control center in a house on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a period, locals could continue to jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to present identification, although each person was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with mines, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could continue to view each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian local who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me stories including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career building it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of wall they desired to maintain. They selected a section on the west perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the frontier was significantly fortified.

Conserved Structures

Two guard towers are preserved together with a set of tableaux depicting the most significant moments in the village’s history. As we move, the director lists the regulations: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents required special permission to care for their produce; the husband or wife could work the harvesting machine but never the pair, lest they attempted to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but in excess of double the number persons (more than 300) died trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between two political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director explains.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of destination. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit every year, viewing tools in their hands, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary community like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and big vehicle area – is likely to