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A creek so narrow you barely got your feet wet split a settlement for over four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by pine forests, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was torn down, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers began commemorating their heritage. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely prepared. Telling the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Background

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity never stood in the manner of the residents drinking in the same pub, attending the identical church and sending their young ones to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Division

Then came the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the entire village, creating their control center in a building on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers persuaded them to pull back across the creek. For a time, residents could still cross over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to present ID, even though each person was aware who they were, and to come back at night.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The villagers could continue to see each other by ascending hills, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Development

I heard narratives such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his occupational time creating it. Locals were asked in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they desired to preserve. They chose a stretch on the west perimeter, adjacent to where a villager was able to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, after which the boundary was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Structures

2 observation towers are maintained together with a set of displays depicting the most impactful events in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, the director lists the regulations: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required particular approval to tend to their crops; the spouse could use the combine harvester but never the pair, lest they attempted to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but in excess of two times more persons (well over 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They neither supported the communist regime nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15,000 visited annually, binoculars in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a fictional community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Current Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, movie theater and large car park – is probable to