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An creek so narrow you barely got your feet wet split a village for in excess of four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents began commemorating their history. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Addressing the villagers who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel split, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an cruel division, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Historical Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the residents gathering in the identical inn, going to the same place of worship and placing their young ones to the very same school.

After the War Split

Then came the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Russians installed wood stakes by the creek. For a year they seized the whole village, creating their command in a house on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a while, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to display identification, although each person understood who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and observation points. The locals could continue to see each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side waving and shouting were forbidden. A local woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a western villager who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his professional career developing it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how how long a section wall they wished to preserve. They chose a section on the western edge, adjacent to where a villager managed to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Structures

Two observation towers are preserved alongside a series of tableaux showing the most significant dates in the village’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director enumerates the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Farmers had to obtain particular approval to tend to their crops; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, for fear that they sought to flee. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most, but in excess of two times more individuals (well over 300) lost their lives seeking to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. the director informs me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by avoiding attention and tending to their farms. They neither backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. About 15k visited annually, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Modern Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and large parking lot – is probable to