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An creek so narrow you barely got your ankles wet divided a community for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about commemorating their history. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for assigning all its men the title Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the residents socializing in the identical pub, visiting the identical religious building and sending their young ones to the same school.

After the War Split

Then came the World War II. The moment they came, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the creek. For a annual period they seized the complete village, setting up their command in a house on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to withdraw across the creek. For a while, locals could still cross over, though as limitations increased they were forced to show ID, even though all was aware who they were, and to come back at night.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was put on a Stasi watch list for responding “back at you” to a western local who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wished to preserve. They chose a section on the Bavarian perimeter, near where a villager managed to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of guard towers are maintained together with a set of displays showing the most dramatic moments in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, the director details the restrictions: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed special permission to look after their fields; the partner could use the harvesting machine but not the pair, in case they sought to flee. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most, but more than twice as many people (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to dwelling in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They did not backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand visited annually, optical devices in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Current Changes

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and large car park – is probable to