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A stream so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a settlement for in excess of four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own division was opened, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of residents began documenting their past. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite finished. Telling the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel split, which pulled relatives apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel division, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

Past Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the very same pub, visiting the identical church and placing their kids to the same educational institution.

Post-War Division

Next arrived the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they took over the entire hamlet, creating their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces persuaded them to retreat across the creek. For a time, residents could still cross over, though as limitations increased they were forced to show ID, even though all knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Escalation of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The residents could continue to view each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side signaling and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was put on a Stasi watch list for responding “back at you” to a West German local who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his working life building it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how how long a section structure they wished to preserve. They opted for a section on the western perimeter, near where a villager was able to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are preserved in addition to a series of displays showing the most dramatic moments in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their produce; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but not both, for fear that they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The border between Western Germany and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many individuals (well over 300) were killed trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the ambiguous area between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and caring for their land. They neither endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. About 15k came to visit annually, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Current Changes

The opening of the new museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, movie theater and sizable parking lot – is expected to