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A creek so shallow you barely got your feet wet divided a village for more than four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by pine forests, meadows and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own division was opened, and even before their state had become one in 1990, a group of residents started memorialising their past. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Speaking to the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the path of the residents socializing in the same tavern, visiting the identical religious building and sending their young ones to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Then came the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the entire village, creating their command in a house on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to retreat to the other side of the brook. For a period, residents could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to display identity papers, despite the fact that everyone understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The locals could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side signaling and yelling were forbidden. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “likewise” to a West German local who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his professional career creating it. Locals were asked early on about how much structure they wanted to preserve. They opted for a portion on the western perimeter, close to where a local resident managed to get away in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Conserved Structures

2 observation towers are preserved together with a set of tableaux showing the most dramatic moments in the community’s history. As we stroll, the director details the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Farmers had to obtain particular approval to look after their produce; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but never the pair, lest they tried to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but over twice as many people (exceeding 300) were killed attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director informs me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They did not backed the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of destination. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit each year, binoculars in their hands, to look – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, cinema room and large parking lot – is expected to