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An brook so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for over four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a group of residents started documenting their past. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite finished. Addressing the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped households into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which ripped families apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most famous for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the oddity did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the very same pub, going to the same religious building and enrolling their young ones to the identical learning center.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Russians put up wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the complete hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to pull back across the stream. For a time, residents could continue to cross over, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to display identification, even though all was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could continue to see each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. One woman was added to a GDR intelligence monitoring list for answering “likewise” to a West German villager who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told stories including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they desired to preserve. They chose a portion on the western perimeter, near where a villager managed to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the border was substantially reinforced.

Conserved Structures

2 observation towers are conserved alongside a series of tableaux illustrating the most impactful events in the community’s past. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the rules: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents needed specific authorization to care for their fields; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but never the two, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Context

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but over double the number individuals (exceeding 300) were killed attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They did not supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a type of destination. About 15,000 came to see every year, optical devices in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and big vehicle area – is expected to