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A stream so low you hardly got your ankles wet split a settlement for over four decades. By an accident of landscape, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

Several months after their own wall was opened, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a group of residents started memorialising their heritage. The work is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not completely prepared. Speaking to the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Bygone Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the residents drinking in the same inn, visiting the very same place of worship and placing their young ones to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they seized the complete community, establishing their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat back over the creek. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as controls increased they were obliged to present identity papers, although everyone was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The residents could still see each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side waving and shouting were banned. One woman was added to a Stasi monitoring list for responding “back at you” to a western local who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his professional career building it. Locals were polled early on about how what length of structure they wanted to preserve. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian edge, near where a local resident was able to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Maintained Buildings

Two guard towers are maintained together with a collection of tableaux illustrating the most significant moments in the village’s past. As we move, the director details the rules: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the border. Farmers had to obtain special permission to tend to their fields; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, lest they tried to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Context

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many people (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to visit every year, binoculars in hand, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Present-Day Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is expected to