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An brook so low you scarcely got your ankles wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own division was breached, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of residents started documenting their heritage. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not entirely ready. Telling the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the quirk never stood in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the same tavern, attending the very same church and enrolling their children to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russians installed wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the complete village, establishing their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to pull back back over the brook. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to display identification, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The locals could still observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side waving and shouting were banned. A female resident was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian villager who said her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

It was related to me narratives like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his working life building it. Residents were polled in the initial phases about how how long a section wall they desired to preserve. They chose a portion on the Bavarian edge, near where a villager succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Structures

Two watchtowers are preserved in addition to a collection of displays showing the most impactful dates in the community’s chronicle. As we stroll, Lebergen lists the restrictions: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed particular approval to look after their produce; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but not both, lest they tried to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but in excess of twice as many people (more than 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the metropolis. the director reminds me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adapted to living in the ambiguous area between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their farms. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. Roughly fifteen thousand visited each year, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, caused fresh interest.

Current Changes

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, cinema room and large car park – is likely to