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An creek so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a community for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

Several months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a assembly of local people set about memorialising their history. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely ready. Addressing the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which ripped families apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

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

Bygone Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity did not stand in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the same tavern, visiting the same church and enrolling their children to the very same school.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russians put up timber poles by the creek. For a annual period they seized the complete hamlet, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to withdraw back over the brook. For a while, residents could still cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to display identity papers, although everyone understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Increase of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could still view each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. One woman was put on a East German secret police surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a West German local who wished her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

I heard accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his working life creating it. Locals were asked early on about how what length of barrier they wanted to keep. They opted for a stretch on the west perimeter, close to where one of their own managed to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the boundary was significantly fortified.

Conserved Installations

A pair of watchtowers are maintained in addition to a collection of tableaux illustrating the most impactful moments in the community’s chronicle. As we move, the director lists the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed particular approval to tend to their produce; the partner could work the harvesting machine but not the pair, for fear that they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but over two times more individuals (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the village became a kind of site of interest. About fifteen thousand came to visit every year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Current Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, movie theater and big car park – is likely to