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An creek so low you scarcely got your feet wet separated a community for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, pastures and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own wall was breached, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about commemorating their heritage. The work is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely finished. Addressing the locals who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which pulled families asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the same inn, visiting the identical place of worship and sending their kids to the identical educational institution.

After the War Division

Then came the second world war. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the creek. For a year they seized the complete community, creating their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to present identification, even though all understood who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Controls

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The villagers could continue to observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side waving and yelling were forbidden. A local woman was put on a East German secret police watch list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian local who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his working life creating it. Villagers were polled in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wished to preserve. They opted for a section on the west perimeter, close to where a local resident was able to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Installations

2 observation towers are maintained together with a collection of exhibits showing the most impactful events in the village’s history. As we move, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents needed specific authorization to tend to their fields; the spouse could use the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, in case they sought to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but more than double the number persons (more than 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. the director tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between a pair of belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They neither endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a kind of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit annually, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, boutique, film screening area and large vehicle area – is expected to