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A creek so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a community for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a group of residents began memorialising their history. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely ready. Addressing the villagers who experienced the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an brutal split, which tore households apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for giving all its men the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the path of the locals gathering in the same inn, visiting the same church and enrolling their kids to the very same educational institution.

After the War Division

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russians installed timber poles by the brook. For a year they seized the whole community, establishing their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to withdraw across the stream. For a period, locals could still cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to show identification, although all understood who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The villagers could still view each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. One woman was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a western resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a large part of his professional career developing it. Villagers were consulted early on about how what length of barrier they desired to preserve. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian edge, near where a villager was able to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the boundary was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are maintained in addition to a collection of tableaux depicting the most impactful events in the community’s past. As we stroll, Lebergen lists the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required special permission to look after their fields; the partner could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, lest they attempted to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of two times more persons (exceeding 300) were killed trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director informs me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Hamlet Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or craftsmen, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between two political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their land. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a kind of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to see each year, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a made-up village similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and big car park – is expected to