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An creek so shallow you hardly got your feet wet split a community for over four decades. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own division was torn down, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers set about documenting their past. The effort is close to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not completely ready. Telling the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an cruel division, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal split, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk did not stand in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same tavern, attending the very same religious building and placing their kids to the identical school.

Following WWII Division

Then came the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the complete village, creating their control center in a building on the western side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat back over the creek. For a period, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to show identification, although everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The villagers could continue to observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were forbidden. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for replying “likewise” to a western local who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me accounts such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time building it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how what length of wall they desired to keep. They selected a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where a local resident was able to get away in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the boundary was substantially fortified.

Conserved Installations

Two watchtowers are preserved together with a collection of displays illustrating the most dramatic events in the community’s past. As we walk, Lebergen lists the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required specific authorization to look after their fields; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but never both, in case they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but more than double the number people (well over 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adjusted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They did not supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Roughly fifteen thousand came to see every year, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh interest.

Current Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, store, film screening area and large parking lot – is likely to