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An creek so low you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for over four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

Months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers began documenting their heritage. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely ready. Addressing the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which tore relatives into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which tore households asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the oddity never stood in the path of the residents gathering in the identical inn, visiting the same religious building and sending their kids to the identical school.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the stream. For a year they took over the whole hamlet, creating their command in a building on the western side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw back over the stream. For a period, locals could continue to jump across, though as controls increased they were required to present identification, even though all knew who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was erected, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side waving and calling out were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a West German villager who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his working life building it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how much wall they wanted to preserve. They chose a stretch on the west perimeter, close to where a local resident succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, following which the boundary was substantially fortified.

Preserved Installations

Two guard towers are maintained together with a series of displays depicting the most dramatic moments in the village’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: no one could approach 5km of the border. Farmers needed specific authorization to look after their produce; the partner could use the harvesting machine but never the pair, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but more than two times more individuals (exceeding 300) died trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. the director informs me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They did not backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of destination. Approximately 15,000 came to visit each year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is likely to