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An stream so narrow you barely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about documenting their past. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse 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 ready. Telling the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel split, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most famous for bestowing all its male members the name Heinrich and counting them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals socializing in the same tavern, attending the very same place of worship and sending their children to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops installed timber poles by the stream. For a year they seized the entire village, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to retreat back over the creek. For a while, residents could continue to jump across, though as controls became stricter they were forced to show ID, although everyone knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with mines, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could continue to observe each other by climbing hills, but on the eastern side signaling and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a western villager who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his working life developing it. Locals were polled early on about how how long a section structure they wished to keep. They chose a section on the western edge, adjacent to where one of their own was able to get away in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the border was heavily reinforced.

Preserved Buildings

A pair of watchtowers are preserved alongside a set of exhibits depicting the most dramatic events in the community’s past. As we move, Lebergen enumerates the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents required special permission to look after their produce; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but not the pair, lest they sought to flee. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but more than double the number individuals (more than 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They neither endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, the director states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. About 15k visited every year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, cinema room and sizable parking lot – is likely to