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A stream so low you hardly got your ankles wet separated a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of villagers started documenting their history. The effort is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not completely prepared. Speaking to the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel division, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which ripped households into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

Past Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the oddity never stood in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the identical pub, attending the identical place of worship and placing their young ones to the same school.

After the War Split

Then came the World War II. As soon as they arrived, the Russians put up wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they took over the whole village, establishing their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a time, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were required to display identity papers, even though all was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could still view each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police watch list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian villager who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life creating it. Villagers were polled early on about how how long a section wall they wished to maintain. They chose a portion on the western perimeter, close to where one of their own managed to flee in the dead of night with a scaling tool, after which the boundary was significantly fortified.

Preserved Installations

Two guard towers are conserved alongside a series of exhibits illustrating the most impactful dates in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required particular approval to look after their fields; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, lest they tried to escape. Armed guards kept guard.

Wider Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number people (well over 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and tending to their land. They neither backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. Approximately 15,000 visited annually, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, boutique, film screening area and sizable car park – is probable to