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An stream so shallow you barely got your ankles wet divided a village for over four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a partition. US troops called it Small Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents started commemorating their past. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely ready. Speaking to the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which ripped relatives asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Origins

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk did not stand in the way of the locals socializing in the same inn, attending the same place of worship and placing their children to the very same school.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they took over the complete hamlet, establishing their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, adorning 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 time, villagers could continue to cross over, though as controls tightened they were forced to show identification, even though all was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The residents could continue to observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. One woman was placed on a East German secret police watch list for replying “likewise” to a Bavarian local who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Creation

I was told accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were consulted early on about how how long a section wall they wanted to preserve. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian fringe, close to where a local resident managed to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Installations

2 watchtowers are conserved together with a series of tableaux depicting the most dramatic events in the community’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director lists the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents needed particular approval to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but never the pair, in case they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but more than twice as many persons (exceeding 300) were killed attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. About 15k came to see each year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Current Evolutions

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