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A brook so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades. Due to a quirk of landscape, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, fields and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Memorialising History

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their country had become one in 1990, a group of local people set about documenting their past. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely finished. Telling the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which pulled households apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which pulled households asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Past Background

Starting at its founding in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for assigning all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the residents drinking in the very same tavern, going to the very same religious building and sending their young ones to the very same educational institution.

After the War Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops installed timber poles by the stream. For a year they occupied the complete village, setting up their command in a building on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a period, locals could still jump across, though as restrictions increased they were required to present ID, even though all was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The residents could still observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. One woman was put on a Stasi monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a West German villager who wished her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard accounts including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time developing it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how much barrier they wished to keep. They chose a section on the Bavarian perimeter, near where a villager managed to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the border was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Structures

A pair of watchtowers are preserved in addition to a set of exhibits showing the most dramatic dates in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Farmers needed special permission to care for their crops; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, in case they attempted to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Context

The border between Western Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but over twice as many persons (more than 300) died trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of efforts to cross failed.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to living in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They did not supported the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of destination. About 15k came to see annually, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Modern Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and big vehicle area – is expected to