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A stream so narrow you barely got your ankles wet divided a community for more than four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own division was breached, and before their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers set about commemorating their past. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk did not stand in the way of the residents socializing in the same pub, visiting the very same church and enrolling their children to the identical learning center.

After the War Division

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces put up wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they took over the complete community, creating their control center in a house on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw back over the stream. For a while, locals could continue to jump across, though as controls increased they were obliged to present ID, despite the fact that all was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “back at you” to a Bavarian local who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I heard stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his professional career creating it. Locals were polled early on about how what length of wall they wished to keep. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian edge, close to where one of their own succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Conserved Structures

Two observation towers are conserved in addition to a collection of exhibits illustrating the most dramatic moments in the community’s past. As we stroll, Lebergen details the restrictions: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required particular approval to care for their produce; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but not the two, in case they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the greatest, but over two times more persons (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between two political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They neither backed the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of destination. About fifteen thousand came to see each year, binoculars in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and big vehicle area – is expected to