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A stream so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a partition. US troops called it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers set about memorialising their heritage. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Addressing the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Bygone Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the residents drinking in the identical inn, visiting the identical church and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

Post-War Separation

Then came the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the brook. For a year they occupied the complete hamlet, establishing their control center in a house on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to pull back back over the brook. For a period, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations tightened they were forced to display identity papers, even though everyone understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by climbing hills, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. One woman was placed on a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a western resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Locals were asked in the initial phases about how much wall they wanted to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where one of their own managed to escape in the dead of night with a ladder, after which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of observation towers are preserved in addition to a collection of displays illustrating the most significant events in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, the director details the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to tend to their produce; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but not the pair, in case they sought to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but more than two times more persons (more than 300) were killed attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their fields. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a kind of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand visited each year, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a television program about a imaginary community resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and large vehicle area – is likely to