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An brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a community for more than four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, pastures and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own division was opened, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a collection of residents set about commemorating their heritage. The work is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Telling the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped households into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Right from its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the very same tavern, visiting the same religious building and sending their children to the identical school.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they came, the Russians installed wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they took over the entire hamlet, creating their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to pull back to the other side of the brook. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as limitations increased they were obliged to present ID, even though everyone understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could still see each other by scaling slopes, but on the eastern side waving and calling out were forbidden. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for replying “same to you” to a western villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I was told narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his occupational time creating it. Residents were asked early on about how how long a section structure they wished to maintain. They opted for a section on the western perimeter, near where a villager succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Installations

2 observation towers are conserved alongside a collection of exhibits illustrating the most significant events in the community’s past. As we stroll, the director details the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to care for their crops; the husband or wife could work the combine harvester but never both, for fear that they attempted to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many persons (well over 300) were killed trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between two political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their farms. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k came to visit each year, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and large vehicle area – is expected to