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A brook so low you scarcely got your feet wet divided a community for more than four decades. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a collection of residents began memorialising their history. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Addressing the villagers who experienced the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal split, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which tore households asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the locals socializing in the identical inn, attending the very same church and placing their children to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Separation

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the stream. For a year they took over the complete community, establishing their command in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a time, residents could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were forced to display identification, even though each person was aware who they were, and to go back at night.

Escalation of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The locals could still view each other by ascending hills, but on the east side waving and calling out were banned. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for answering “likewise” to a West German local who said her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

It was related to me narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a large part of his working life creating it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of wall they wished to keep. They opted for a stretch on the west perimeter, near where a local resident was able to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, after which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Structures

Two guard towers are conserved alongside a collection of displays illustrating the most dramatic moments in the community’s past. As we stroll, Lebergen lists the restrictions: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed special permission to look after their crops; the partner could use the combine harvester but never the two, for fear that they sought to flee. Military personnel stood watch.

Larger Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most, but in excess of two times more persons (well over 300) died attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They did not supported the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of destination. Approximately 15,000 came to visit each year, viewing tools in their hands, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, caused new curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, shop, movie theater and sizable car park – is probable to