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An stream so low you hardly got your feet wet split a settlement for over four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a partition. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Several months after their own division was torn down, and before their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people began documenting their past. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely finished. Telling the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which tore families asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which pulled families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals drinking in the same tavern, visiting the identical religious building and sending their children to the same educational institution.

After the War Separation

Then came the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the complete community, establishing their headquarters in a building on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to withdraw across the creek. For a period, villagers could continue to hop over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to display identity papers, even though each person was aware who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could continue to observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side signaling and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard accounts including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how how long a section wall they wanted to preserve. They chose a stretch on the western fringe, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Installations

A pair of watchtowers are preserved in addition to a set of displays depicting the most dramatic dates in the village’s past. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed special permission to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but not the two, in case they tried to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but in excess of twice as many people (exceeding 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to see each year, optical devices in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a television program about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and big parking lot – is likely to