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A stream so low you barely got your ankles wet split a village for more than four decades. By an accident of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, pastures and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of residents began commemorating their history. The project is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an cruel division, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the identical pub, attending the very same church and enrolling their young ones to the very same educational institution.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russians put up wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they took over the whole village, creating their headquarters in a building on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to withdraw across the brook. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to present identification, even though each person understood who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with mines, tank traps and watchtowers. The villagers could still view each other by climbing elevations, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were banned. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a West German resident who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told accounts such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how much wall they wanted to preserve. They chose a section on the western edge, close to where a villager was able to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of watchtowers are maintained together with a collection of displays illustrating the most impactful events in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, the director lists the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents required particular approval to care for their fields; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, lest they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but over two times more persons (well over 300) died trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They neither supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a kind of destination. About 15k came to visit annually, optical devices 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 unification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary community like Mödlareuth, caused fresh interest.

Modern Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, movie theater and sizable car park – is expected to