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A stream so low you hardly got your ankles wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people started memorialising their heritage. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the residents who experienced the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore relatives apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled households apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Past Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the village straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the oddity never stood in the way of the locals drinking in the very same pub, attending the identical religious building and placing their kids to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians erected timber poles by the stream. For a year they occupied the entire village, establishing their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans convinced them to pull back across the stream. For a period, residents could still cross over, though as controls increased they were obliged to show identity papers, although everyone was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were banned. A local woman was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for answering “likewise” to a West German villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Creation

I was told stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his working life creating it. Residents were polled early on about how what length of structure they desired to keep. They selected a section on the Bavarian edge, close to where one of their own succeeded to escape in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the boundary was significantly fortified.

Conserved Structures

A pair of guard towers are maintained in addition to a series of displays showing the most dramatic dates in the community’s history. As we walk, the director lists the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required particular approval to look after their produce; the partner could operate the combine harvester but not the pair, lest they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but more than twice as many persons (well over 300) were killed seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They nor did they backed the communist regime nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. About fifteen thousand came to visit annually, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a television program about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in new interest.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, store, movie theater and sizable vehicle area – is likely to