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An creek so low you barely got your ankles wet split a community for over four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a group of villagers set about memorialising their history. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely ready. Speaking to the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which ripped relatives apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which pulled households into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

Past Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house best known for assigning all its men the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals gathering in the same tavern, going to the very same place of worship and placing their young ones to the same school.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Russians installed wood stakes by the stream. For a year they seized the entire hamlet, creating their command in a building on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to withdraw back over the stream. For a time, residents could still hop over, though as controls increased they were obliged to show identity papers, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could still see each other by climbing hills, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were forbidden. One woman was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for responding “same to you” to a western resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time building it. Villagers were asked early on about how much structure they wanted to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the western fringe, adjacent to where a local resident managed to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the frontier was significantly fortified.

Conserved Installations

Two guard towers are maintained in addition to a series of tableaux showing the most impactful dates in the village’s chronicle. As we move, Lebergen lists the rules: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Farmers required particular approval to care for their crops; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but not both, in case they attempted to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number people (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They neither supported the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of site of interest. Roughly 15,000 visited annually, binoculars in their hands, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the television series, a television program about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and big parking lot – is probable to