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A stream so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a village for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, pastures and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people started memorialising their heritage. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely prepared. Speaking to the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which tore relatives apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals socializing in the very same inn, visiting the identical place of worship and sending their young ones to the same educational institution.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops installed wood stakes by the stream. For a year they seized the whole village, creating their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a while, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to present ID, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with explosives, tank traps and watchtowers. The villagers could continue to see each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and yelling were forbidden. One woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a western local who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told narratives such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Residents were asked in the initial phases about how how long a section structure they desired to keep. They selected a portion on the western fringe, close to where a villager managed to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Installations

Two watchtowers are preserved together with a set of displays illustrating the most impactful events in the community’s history. As we walk, the director enumerates the rules: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to look after their crops; the partner could use the harvesting machine but not both, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but more than double the number individuals (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adapted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between two political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They neither supported the communist regime nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. Roughly 15,000 came to see annually, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, store, cinema room and sizable parking lot – is likely to