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An stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a community for over four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Several months after their own division was torn down, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of local people began documenting their heritage. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely prepared. Telling the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal division, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Past Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the quirk did not stand in the way of the residents drinking in the same inn, going to the very same religious building and enrolling their children to the very same school.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians erected wooden posts by the stream. For a year they occupied the entire village, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to pull back across the brook. For a while, villagers could continue to hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to display ID, although each person knew who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Boundary Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could continue to see each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. One woman was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his professional career building it. Locals were asked in the initial phases about how much barrier they desired to maintain. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian edge, close to where a local resident succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Structures

A pair of guard towers are preserved together with a series of exhibits showing the most dramatic events in the community’s chronicle. As we move, Lebergen lists the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the border. Farmers had to obtain special permission to care for their produce; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, lest they attempted to flee. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Context

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most, but more than two times more people (well over 300) died attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor resisted it, the director explains.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a type of destination. Approximately 15,000 visited each year, binoculars in possession, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, caused new curiosity.

Modern Developments

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and large parking lot – is likely to