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A brook so narrow you barely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own wall was breached, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people set about memorialising their heritage. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Telling the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an cruel division, which tore households asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel division, which ripped families asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Bygone Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house best known for giving all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals socializing in the identical tavern, attending the identical religious building and placing their kids to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Split

Then came the global conflict. The moment they came, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the brook. For a year they occupied the complete community, setting up their control center in a building on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to withdraw across the stream. For a while, locals could continue to cross over, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to present identification, although all was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could continue to view each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were banned. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “back at you” to a West German villager who wished her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life building it. Locals were asked in the initial phases about how how long a section wall they wanted to keep. They chose a stretch on the western edge, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the frontier was heavily fortified.

Maintained Structures

2 guard towers are maintained in addition to a set of exhibits depicting the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, the director details the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents needed specific authorization to tend to their crops; the husband or wife could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, lest they sought to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but in excess of double the number persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to pass over it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director tells me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. Approximately 15,000 visited annually, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, the television series, a broadcast production about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh interest.

Current Developments

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, cinema room and large vehicle area – is probable to