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An brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet split a village for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Several months after their own division was breached, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of residents started memorialising their heritage. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely finished. Addressing the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which pulled households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

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

Past Background

Even at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the locals socializing in the same tavern, visiting the very same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

Post-War Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the complete community, setting up their control center in a house on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to retreat across the brook. For a time, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were required to present ID, although all was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were forbidden. One woman was added to a East German secret police watch list for answering “same to you” to a western local who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his working life developing it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wished to preserve. They selected a section on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where one of their own was able to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the border was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Structures

A pair of watchtowers are maintained together with a series of displays illustrating the most significant dates in the community’s history. As we move, the director lists the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to care for their crops; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but never the pair, in case they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Background

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but over two times more persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that 95% of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of destination. Roughly 15k came to see every year, optical devices in hand, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, movie theater and big vehicle area – is expected to