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An creek so shallow you barely got your ankles wet divided a village for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

A few months after their own wall was breached, and before their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers began documenting their history. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Addressing the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the oddity did not stand in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the same inn, attending the same church and enrolling their kids to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the brook. For a year they occupied the whole hamlet, setting up their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers convinced them to withdraw across the brook. For a time, residents could still jump across, though as controls became stricter they were forced to display identification, even though everyone understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Escalation of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could continue to see each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were forbidden. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a western villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

I was told accounts such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time building it. Locals were polled early on about how what length of structure they desired to preserve. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian fringe, close to where one of their own managed to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Installations

2 guard towers are preserved alongside a collection of exhibits depicting the most significant dates in the hamlet’s history. As we move, the director enumerates the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed specific authorization to care for their fields; the partner could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the two, for fear that they attempted to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but in excess of two times more persons (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. the director reminds me that 95 percent of efforts to cross failed.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their land. They neither supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. Roughly 15k came to visit annually, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and large car park – is probable to