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An stream so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a village for over four decades. By an accident of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops called it Small Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own division was breached, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people set about commemorating 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 inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Addressing the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman split, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman split, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Past Background

Right from its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for assigning all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the path of the locals socializing in the very same pub, attending the same place of worship and placing their kids to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Russians installed wood stakes by the brook. For a year they took over the entire village, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a time, residents could continue to hop over, though as limitations tightened they were required to display identity papers, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Border Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The locals could continue to observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side waving and yelling were prohibited. One woman was placed on a East German secret police monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his working life building it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how much wall they desired to maintain. They chose a portion on the western perimeter, near where one of their own was able to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Conserved Structures

Two guard towers are preserved alongside a series of tableaux showing the most impactful dates in the community’s history. As we move, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed special permission to look after their fields; the partner could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances both, for fear that they tried to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Larger Context

The boundary between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but in excess of double the number people (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director tells me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Approximately 15,000 visited every year, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary village resembling Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Current Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and big car park – is likely to