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A stream so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their state had become one in 1990, a group of residents set about commemorating their past. The work is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely ready. Speaking to the villagers who experienced the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which tore households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house best known for assigning all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the oddity never stood in the manner of the locals socializing in the same tavern, visiting the same place of worship and enrolling their children to the identical educational institution.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russians put up wood stakes by the brook. For a year they occupied the whole village, creating their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to withdraw across the stream. For a time, locals could continue to cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to display ID, even though each person knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were banned. One woman was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a western resident who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his occupational time creating it. Locals were asked in the initial phases about how what length of wall they desired to maintain. They selected a portion on the Bavarian fringe, near where one of their own was able to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the boundary was heavily fortified.

Preserved Structures

2 watchtowers are maintained together with a collection of displays illustrating the most significant dates in the hamlet’s history. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required particular approval to tend to their fields; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but never the two, in case they sought to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Context

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but over two times more people (well over 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their land. They neither endorsed the communist regime nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand visited annually, binoculars in hand, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and large parking lot – is probable to