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A stream so low you hardly got your feet wet separated a settlement for over four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, pastures and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a group of local people set about memorialising their past. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely ready. Telling the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which ripped households apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Historical Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the manner of the residents socializing in the identical inn, going to the same place of worship and sending their children to the same educational institution.

After the War Division

Then came the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russian troops put up wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they took over the entire community, establishing their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to withdraw back over the creek. For a period, residents could continue to hop over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to show ID, although everyone knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with mines, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “back at you” to a West German local who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were polled in the initial phases about how what length of wall they desired to maintain. They selected a section on the western fringe, near where one of their own was able to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the boundary was heavily fortified.

Preserved Buildings

2 observation towers are preserved in addition to a collection of exhibits depicting the most significant moments in the village’s history. As we move, the director enumerates the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Farmers required special permission to look after their fields; the spouse could work the combine harvester but never both, in case they attempted to flee. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Background

The border between Western Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but in excess of double the number people (well over 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They neither supported the communist regime nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k came to visit each year, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh interest.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and sizable parking lot – is expected to