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A stream so low you hardly got your ankles wet divided a village for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers set about memorialising their heritage. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely finished. Telling the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which tore relatives apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Even at its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the path of the residents gathering in the very same pub, going to the same church and enrolling their kids to the very same learning center.

Post-War Split

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Russians installed wood stakes by the creek. For a annual period they took over the entire hamlet, creating their command in a building on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a period, residents could continue to cross over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to show identity papers, although everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could continue to observe each other by climbing hills, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a western resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his working life building it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how what length of barrier they desired to maintain. They selected a section on the Bavarian edge, close to where a local resident was able to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the frontier was heavily fortified.

Preserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are preserved in addition to a set of displays showing the most significant events in the community’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen lists the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed particular approval to tend to their crops; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, in case they sought to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most, but over two times more persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They nor did they endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a type of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k visited each year, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up village similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Modern Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is likely to