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A creek so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a community for in excess of four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their state had become one in 1990, a group of local people set about memorialising their heritage. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Addressing the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which pulled households into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which ripped families asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its creation in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk never stood in the path of the locals drinking in the very same inn, attending the very same place of worship and sending their young ones to the same learning center.

After the War Separation

Then came the second world war. As soon as they came, the Russians installed wood stakes by the creek. For a year they occupied the entire hamlet, creating their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to retreat back over the creek. For a time, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to show identification, even though each person was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could continue to observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were banned. One woman was placed on a Stasi monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a Bavarian local who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his working life building it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how much wall they wished to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the west perimeter, adjacent to where a villager was able to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, subsequently the border was substantially fortified.

Preserved Buildings

Two observation towers are maintained alongside a series of exhibits depicting the most dramatic dates in the community’s history. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the rules: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed special permission to look after their produce; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but never the two, lest they sought to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most, but in excess of double the number persons (exceeding 300) died attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between two belief systems by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of site of interest. Approximately 15k visited annually, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and large parking lot – is probable to