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An brook so low you barely got your ankles wet divided a community for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by coniferous woods, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own wall was opened, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers started memorialising their past. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely ready. Telling the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which ripped families asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for assigning all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk never stood in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the same tavern, visiting the identical place of worship and enrolling their kids to the same educational institution.

Post-War Split

Subsequently occurred the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the whole community, setting up their headquarters in a house on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to pull back across the creek. For a period, locals could still cross over, though as limitations increased they were forced to show ID, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Border Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The residents could continue to view each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were banned. A female resident was put on a Stasi monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a western resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I was told stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his working life building it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how much barrier they wished to maintain. They opted for a section on the west perimeter, near where a villager was able to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was significantly fortified.

Conserved Installations

2 guard towers are preserved together with a series of tableaux depicting the most impactful dates in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, the director details the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to care for their produce; the spouse could work the combine harvester but not both, lest they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Wider Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but in excess of two times more people (well over 300) died seeking to pass over it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. About fifteen thousand came to see each year, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a fictional hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, store, cinema room and big vehicle area – is probable to