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A creek so narrow you barely got your feet wet split a village for over four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

A few months after their own division was breached, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of residents began memorialising their past. The effort is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely ready. Addressing the locals who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which pulled households apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the oddity never stood in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the same tavern, visiting the very same place of worship and placing their young ones to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they came, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the whole community, establishing their command in a building on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans convinced them to pull back back over the stream. For a period, villagers could continue to cross over, though as controls increased they were forced to display identity papers, even though everyone understood who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a West German resident who said her “good new year”.

Museum Development

I was told accounts such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his working life creating it. Locals were consulted in the initial phases about how much wall they desired to preserve. They opted for a section on the western perimeter, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the border was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Installations

Two observation towers are conserved together with a set of displays depicting the most dramatic events in the village’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required special permission to look after their produce; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but not both, in case they sought to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Wider Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but over two times more persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between two belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor resisted it, the director states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Roughly fifteen thousand visited every year, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Current Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, cinema room and large vehicle area – is expected to