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An stream so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a settlement for more than four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. 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 barricade. US troops called it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a assembly of residents set about documenting their history. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Addressing the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which tore families apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were observers of an cruel division, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the residents drinking in the same inn, attending the identical place of worship and enrolling their kids to the same educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the whole community, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat to the other side of the brook. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to display identity papers, although everyone understood who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could continue to observe each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and yelling were banned. A local woman was placed on a Stasi monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a western resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of wall they wished to keep. They chose a section on the west edge, near where a villager succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, after which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Maintained Structures

2 observation towers are preserved together with a set of exhibits depicting the most impactful dates in the community’s history. As we stroll, the director details the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to care for their crops; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they attempted to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but over two times more persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. the director tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They nor did they endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of destination. Approximately 15k came to visit each year, viewing tools in their hands, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

25 years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Current Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and large parking lot – is expected to