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A stream so narrow you barely got your feet wet split a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people began memorialising their history. The project is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely finished. Addressing the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

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

Historical Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the same inn, visiting the same church and placing their children to the same educational institution.

After the War Separation

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians installed wood stakes by the stream. For a year they seized the entire community, setting up their command in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat across the stream. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to show ID, even though everyone understood who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Border Measures

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was erected, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The residents could continue to observe each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side waving and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was added to a Stasi watch list for responding “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his professional career developing it. Residents were consulted early on about how much structure they wanted to preserve. They opted for a section on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Installations

A pair of watchtowers are maintained alongside a set of displays depicting the most significant events in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, the director lists the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents required specific authorization to care for their fields; the spouse could work the harvesting machine but never the two, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Context

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but over twice as many persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the village became a type of site of interest. Approximately 15,000 came to visit annually, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Modern Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and large vehicle area – is probable to