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An creek so narrow you barely got your feet wet divided a village for in excess of four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own barrier was opened, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of villagers started memorialising their past. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely finished. Speaking to the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which tore families into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its creation in 1810, the village straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk did not stand in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the identical tavern, going to the very same church and sending their children to the very same school.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the World War II. Immediately after they came, the Russian troops installed wood stakes by the creek. For a year they seized the complete hamlet, creating their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to pull back back over the creek. For a period, villagers could still cross over, though as limitations tightened they were forced to display ID, even though all understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Border Measures

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could still view each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his occupational time developing it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they wished to preserve. They chose a stretch on the west fringe, near where a villager succeeded to escape in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the border was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Installations

A pair of observation towers are preserved together with a set of tableaux showing the most impactful dates in the community’s history. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the rules: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Farmers needed special permission to tend to their fields; the spouse could use the agricultural equipment but never both, in case they sought to flee. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Context

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but in excess of twice as many people (well over 300) died seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to residing in the ambiguous area between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the village became a kind of destination. About fifteen thousand came to visit each year, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, movie theater and big car park – is likely to