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A creek so low you barely got your feet wet divided a community for in excess of four decades. By an accident of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about commemorating their past. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely finished. Telling the locals who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which tore households asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Even at its founding in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most famous for bestowing all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals drinking in the same pub, going to the identical place of worship and placing their children to the very same educational institution.

After the War Division

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they came, the Soviet forces installed wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they took over the complete village, creating their command in a building on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to pull back across the creek. For a while, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to present ID, even though everyone understood who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The locals could still see each other by scaling hills, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. A local woman was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a West German local who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

I heard stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his working life building it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how what length of structure they wanted to preserve. They opted for a section on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where a local resident was able to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the border was heavily fortified.

Maintained Buildings

Two guard towers are conserved in addition to a set of exhibits showing the most impactful moments in the community’s past. As we stroll, the director lists the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents needed specific authorization to look after their crops; the spouse could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances both, for fear that they attempted to flee. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most frequently, but more than double the number people (well over 300) lost their lives seeking to traverse it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their land. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, the director explains.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. Roughly 15k came to see every year, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, boutique, movie theater and large car park – is expected to