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An creek so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a community for over four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was breached, and before their country had become one in 1990, a collection of local people began documenting their history. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the residents who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the way of the locals drinking in the same inn, going to the identical place of worship and placing their young ones to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the brook. For a year they seized the entire village, establishing their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the brook. For a time, residents could continue to jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were required to display identification, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to go back at night.

Increase of Border Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The locals could continue to view each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. A local woman was put on a East German secret police watch list for replying “back at you” to a West German villager who said her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his working life building it. Residents were asked early on about how much wall they wanted to keep. They selected a portion on the west perimeter, near where a local resident managed to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Structures

2 observation towers are maintained together with a set of displays illustrating the most significant dates in the hamlet’s past. As we move, the director enumerates the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the border. Farmers required special permission to care for their crops; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but not both, for fear that they sought to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but over twice as many persons (exceeding 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15,000 came to see every year, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and big vehicle area – is probable to