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An stream so low you hardly got your ankles wet divided a village for in excess of four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by evergreen groves, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of residents started memorialising their past. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Addressing the locals who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

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

Past Origins

Right from its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its men the name Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity never stood in the way of the residents gathering in the identical inn, attending the identical religious building and sending their children to the identical learning center.

Post-War Separation

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the brook. For a twelve months they seized the entire village, creating their control center in a building on the western side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat across the stream. For a while, villagers could still jump across, though as controls became stricter they were forced to display ID, even though each person understood who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and watchtowers. The residents could still view each other by scaling hills, but on the east side signaling and calling out were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I heard narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his occupational time creating it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how how long a section wall they wished to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the west edge, near where one of their own was able to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Structures

Two guard towers are conserved together with a set of exhibits depicting the most impactful dates in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, the director lists the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Farmers required special permission to look after their fields; the husband or wife could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances the two, in case they tried to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Context

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most, but in excess of two times more individuals (more than 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adapted to residing in the grey zone between a pair of belief systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. About 15,000 visited every year, optical devices in their hands, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a TV series about a imaginary community like Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Present-Day Changes

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, movie theater and large parking lot – is expected to