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A stream so narrow you barely got your ankles wet divided a village for more than four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own wall was torn down, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers started documenting their history. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely finished. Telling the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which tore families apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the peculiarity did not stand in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the identical tavern, visiting the very same church and enrolling their kids to the same learning center.

After the War Division

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the entire community, creating their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to pull back across the creek. For a while, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to display identity papers, although everyone knew who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could continue to observe each other by climbing hills, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was put on a Stasi surveillance list for answering “back at you” to a Bavarian villager who said her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told accounts such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career developing it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how much wall they desired to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian edge, close to where a villager managed to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the boundary was substantially reinforced.

Conserved Installations

2 observation towers are conserved together with a collection of exhibits depicting the most dramatic moments in the community’s chronicle. As we move, Lebergen details the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required special permission to tend to their fields; the spouse could work the harvesting machine but not the pair, lest they sought to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most, but more than two times more individuals (exceeding 300) were killed trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They did not supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. About 15,000 came to visit each year, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and big car park – is probable to