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An stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet separated a village for more than four decades. By an accident of geography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was marked first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own division was breached, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about memorialising their history. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely prepared. Telling the locals who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel split, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which tore households asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Bygone Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the residents drinking in the same inn, going to the same place of worship and enrolling their children to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the entire hamlet, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to withdraw across the creek. For a time, residents could continue to jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to show identity papers, even though all knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still see each other by climbing elevations, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I heard narratives such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his working life building it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how how long a section wall they wished to keep. They chose a portion on the west fringe, close to where a villager succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Structures

A pair of guard towers are preserved together with a set of displays showing the most dramatic moments in the village’s past. As we walk, Lebergen details the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to tend to their fields; the partner could operate the agricultural equipment but not the two, lest they tried to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between Western Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but more than double the number individuals (well over 300) were killed attempting to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their land. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit each year, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Current Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, cinema room and large parking lot – is expected to