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An creek so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a village for more than four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own wall was opened, and before their country had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents began memorialising their heritage. The effort is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not completely ready. Telling the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal split, which ripped relatives apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most famous for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk never stood in the way of the residents socializing in the same inn, going to the same religious building and enrolling their children to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the creek. For a year they occupied the whole community, establishing their control center in a building on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat back over the brook. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were required to display identity papers, although all knew who they were, and to go back at night.

Increase of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still see each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were banned. A female resident was put on a Stasi watch list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his occupational time building it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how what length of structure they wanted to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the western edge, close to where a local resident was able to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, after which the frontier was substantially fortified.

Maintained Structures

A pair of watchtowers are maintained alongside a set of displays showing the most dramatic events in the community’s past. As we move, Lebergen details the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required particular approval to look after their fields; the spouse could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, in case they attempted to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The boundary 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 documented the most, but over two times more people (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They nor did they endorsed the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand visited every year, optical devices in hand, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a made-up community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Present-Day Changes

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, movie theater and large car park – is probable to