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An brook so low you hardly got your ankles wet separated a village for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was marked first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a group of residents started commemorating their past. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely finished. Addressing the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which ripped families apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal separation, which tore families asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its men the name Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the oddity did not stand in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the very same inn, going to the same place of worship and placing their children to the same learning center.

After the War Split

Next arrived 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 whole hamlet, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers persuaded them to retreat across the creek. For a while, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations increased they were required to show ID, although everyone understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. One woman was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a West German villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I heard accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his occupational time building it. Locals were asked early on about how what length of structure they desired to maintain. They selected a section on the western perimeter, close to where a local resident managed to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Installations

Two watchtowers are preserved alongside a series of tableaux showing the most significant dates in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to look after their fields; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but not both, in case they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number people (more than 300) were killed seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of pilgrimage. About 15k came to see annually, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and large parking lot – is expected to