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A stream so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a settlement for in excess of four decades. By an accident of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a group of local people set about commemorating their past. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not entirely prepared. Addressing the residents who experienced the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel separation, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal split, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Bygone Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family best known for bestowing all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the way of the residents gathering in the same tavern, visiting the same place of worship and enrolling their children to the identical learning center.

Post-War Separation

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Russians erected wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the complete village, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans convinced them to pull back across the stream. For a period, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations increased they were forced to present ID, although all was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Border Controls

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could continue to observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a East German secret police watch list for responding “likewise” to a West German villager who wished her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard stories like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his working life creating it. Residents were consulted early on about how what length of barrier they desired to maintain. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian edge, close to where a villager succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was heavily reinforced.

Maintained Installations

2 watchtowers are maintained together with a series of displays depicting the most significant dates in the community’s history. As we stroll, the director lists the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required specific authorization to look after their crops; the husband or wife could work the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, lest they tried to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Context

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but over two times more people (well over 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. the director informs me that 95% of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between two political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Roughly 15k came to see each year, binoculars in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Modern Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and large car park – is expected to