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An stream so low you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Months after their own wall was opened, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers set about memorialising their heritage. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Speaking to the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the way of the residents gathering in the very same pub, going to the identical place of worship and placing their children to the very same school.

After the War Split

Then came the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russians put up timber poles by the stream. For a year they took over the whole hamlet, setting up their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to pull back across the creek. For a time, residents could continue to jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were required to show identity papers, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Intensification of Border Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The residents could still view each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were banned. One woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for replying “back at you” to a West German villager who said her “good new year”.

Museum Creation

I was told accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his professional career creating it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how what length of barrier they wished to maintain. They opted for a portion on the western edge, adjacent to where a local resident was able to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, after which the border was heavily fortified.

Preserved Installations

A pair of watchtowers are maintained in addition to a set of tableaux illustrating the most significant events in the village’s past. As we move, the director details the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents needed particular approval to care for their produce; the spouse could use the combine harvester but never both, in case they sought to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Broader Background

The frontier between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but more than twice as many people (well over 300) died trying to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to dwelling in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor resisted it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand visited annually, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh attention.

Modern Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, movie theater and large vehicle area – is probable to