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An creek so narrow you hardly got your feet wet separated a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a barrier and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a group of local people began documenting their past. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Telling the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were observers of an inhuman split, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the identical inn, visiting the same religious building and enrolling their children to the same learning center.

After the War Split

Next arrived the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the stream. For a year they seized the whole hamlet, establishing their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw across the creek. For a time, residents could continue to hop over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to display identification, even though everyone knew who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with mines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The residents could continue to see each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for answering “back at you” to a West German resident who said her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time building it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how much wall they desired to keep. They selected a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, near where a villager managed to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Structures

2 watchtowers are maintained in addition to a set of exhibits showing the most dramatic moments in the community’s past. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their produce; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, in case they tried to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but over two times more people (well over 300) died trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director informs me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between two political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. About 15k came to see every year, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, movie theater and large car park – is expected to