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An stream so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet split a community for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, pastures and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a assembly of local people started commemorating their heritage. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Telling the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped families apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Bygone Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity never stood in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the very same pub, attending the same church and sending their children to the very same educational institution.

After the War Split

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the creek. For a year they took over the complete hamlet, creating their command in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat across the brook. For a time, locals could still cross over, though as limitations tightened they were forced to present identification, although all knew who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could continue to view each other by ascending slopes, but on the eastern side waving and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

It was related to me narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a large part of his working life developing it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how much structure they desired to keep. They opted for a section on the west fringe, near where a villager was able to get away in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Conserved Structures

Two observation towers are preserved alongside a collection of displays illustrating the most impactful moments in the village’s chronicle. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents needed particular approval to tend to their fields; the husband or wife could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances the two, in case they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but more than double the number persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. the director reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between a pair of ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a type of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit every year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a television program about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, caused new curiosity.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, cinema room and sizable parking lot – is expected to