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A brook so shallow you barely got your ankles wet separated a community for over four decades of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, fields and stunning vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops called it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own division was opened, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a assembly of residents began memorialising their heritage. The project is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not completely prepared. Addressing the residents who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal split, which tore households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped households apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its creation in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity never stood in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the same pub, attending the same place of worship and enrolling their children to the same school.

Following WWII Separation

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they came, the Russian troops put up wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the complete community, creating their command in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a period, locals could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to show identity papers, even though each person knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Measures

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could continue to view each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side signaling and shouting were forbidden. One woman was put on a East German secret police surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Residents were polled in the initial phases about how what length of wall they wanted to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the western fringe, adjacent to where a villager managed to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the frontier was heavily reinforced.

Preserved Installations

2 observation towers are maintained alongside a series of displays showing the most dramatic dates in the community’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the boundary. Rural residents required specific authorization to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, in case they tried to flee. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many people (well over 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern tells me that 95% of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They neither supported the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. Roughly 15k came to see annually, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after unification, the TV show, a television program about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Modern Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, movie theater and large vehicle area – is expected to