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A brook so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a community for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, pastures and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Several months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of villagers set about documenting their history. The effort is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite finished. Addressing the locals who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the village straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for giving all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the oddity did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the very same tavern, visiting the very same place of worship and sending their children to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the World War II. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they took over the entire community, creating their control center in a house on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the brook. For a while, locals could still jump across, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to display identity papers, although all was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could continue to observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side waving and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was added to a Stasi surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a West German villager who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his occupational time building it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how what length of structure they wished to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the western perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own was able to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, subsequently the border was heavily reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

Two observation towers are conserved together with a set of displays depicting the most significant events in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, Lebergen details the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required specific authorization to tend to their crops; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but never the two, in case they attempted to flee. Armed guards kept guard.

Wider Context

The border between West Germany and the GDR stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but over twice as many people (well over 300) died seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to residing in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They neither supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. About 15k came to see annually, binoculars in their hands, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and big vehicle area – is likely to