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An creek so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a village for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Months after their own division was torn down, and before their state had become one in 1990, a group of villagers set about commemorating their heritage. The project is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely ready. Addressing the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal split, which ripped households asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Origins

Starting at its creation in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk did not stand in the way of the residents drinking in the same pub, visiting the same church and enrolling their kids to the same school.

After the War Split

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the stream. For a annual period they seized the whole hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a house on the western side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to retreat back over the brook. For a while, locals could still jump across, though as limitations increased they were required to show ID, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Border Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could continue to see each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life creating it. Locals were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section structure they wished to keep. They selected a stretch on the western fringe, close to where a local resident managed to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the border was significantly fortified.

Maintained Buildings

Two observation towers are preserved in addition to a set of exhibits showing the most dramatic events in the community’s chronicle. As we walk, the director enumerates the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required particular approval to look after their produce; the spouse could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, lest they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Background

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but more than double the number individuals (more than 300) were killed trying to pass over it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95% of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They neither backed the communist regime nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. About 15,000 came to see every year, binoculars in hand, to look – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, the television series, a broadcast production about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and large parking lot – is probable to