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A stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet separated a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a enclosure and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising History

Several months after their own division was opened, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers started memorialising their past. The effort is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely prepared. Addressing the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which tore families asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Bygone Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the same tavern, going to the identical place of worship and placing their children to the same learning center.

After the War Division

Then came the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the stream. For a year they took over the entire community, setting up their headquarters in a building on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to withdraw back over the stream. For a while, residents could continue to jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to display identity papers, although everyone was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could still view each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. One woman was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a West German resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were polled in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they desired to keep. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian edge, adjacent to where one of their own managed to escape in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the border was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Structures

Two watchtowers are maintained in addition to a collection of displays showing the most impactful moments in the community’s past. As we stroll, the director enumerates the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required special permission to look after their crops; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but not the pair, lest they sought to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most, but more than two times more people (exceeding 300) died attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adapted to residing in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of destination. About fifteen thousand visited every year, binoculars in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in new interest.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and big vehicle area – is expected to