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An brook so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a community for more than four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, meadows and stunning views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own division was opened, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a group of local people began documenting their heritage. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an brutal split, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants drinking in the identical pub, attending the identical religious building and enrolling their young ones to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the whole village, creating their command in a building on the western side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw back over the brook. For a while, residents could continue to cross over, though as controls increased they were required to display identification, although all was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The residents could continue to see each other by climbing hills, but on the east side signaling and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was added to a Stasi watch list for replying “back at you” to a western local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

It was related to me stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his working life creating it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how much wall they desired to keep. They chose a portion on the western fringe, close to where a local resident was able to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was substantially fortified.

Conserved Structures

2 watchtowers are maintained together with a collection of exhibits depicting the most impactful events in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, Lebergen lists the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to look after their fields; the partner could use the combine harvester but never the two, lest they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most, but more than twice as many persons (more than 300) were killed seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They did not supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately 15,000 visited every year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Modern Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is expected to