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An creek so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a village for over four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers began memorialising their heritage. The work is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely prepared. Addressing the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal division, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which ripped households apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the path of the residents gathering in the very same tavern, visiting the same place of worship and enrolling their children to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops installed timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the complete hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to withdraw back over the stream. For a period, residents could continue to cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were required to present identity papers, even though everyone understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was constructed, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could continue to see each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side waving and yelling were banned. A local woman was placed on a Stasi monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a West German villager who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Development

It was related to me stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how what length of structure they desired to maintain. They chose a section on the Bavarian fringe, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the border was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

2 observation towers are conserved alongside a series of tableaux showing the most dramatic events in the village’s past. As we walk, the director enumerates the rules: no one could approach 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to care for their fields; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, for fear that they sought to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but over twice as many persons (more than 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between two belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director explains.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k came to visit annually, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Present-Day Changes

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, movie theater and big vehicle area – is likely to