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A creek so shallow you barely got your ankles wet separated a community for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of local people started memorialising their history. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not completely ready. Telling the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were observers of an brutal split, which tore households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for bestowing all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the same pub, going to the very same church and sending their young ones to the same educational institution.

After the War Division

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they came, the Russians installed wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the complete village, establishing their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans persuaded them to pull back back over the brook. For a while, locals could still jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to display ID, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to go back at night.

Escalation of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the east side signaling and calling out were banned. A local woman was added to a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “likewise” to a western resident who said her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard narratives like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a large part of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they wanted to keep. They chose a section on the west perimeter, close to where one of their own managed to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

Two observation towers are preserved in addition to a set of exhibits illustrating the most dramatic events in the community’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to care for their produce; the spouse could use the combine harvester but never both, lest they sought to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The border between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but over double the number people (well over 300) lost their lives trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adapted to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. About fifteen thousand visited every year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

25 years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Modern Changes

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and sizable vehicle area – is likely to