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A creek so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet split a settlement for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was established first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own division was breached, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of local people began memorialising their history. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal split, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Past Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most famous for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk never stood in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the same pub, visiting the very same church and sending their young ones to the same learning center.

Post-War Split

Next arrived the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the whole hamlet, setting up their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a time, villagers could still cross over, though as controls tightened they were required to display identity papers, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with explosives, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the Soviet side signaling and yelling were banned. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian villager who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I was told stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a large part of his working life building it. Residents were polled early on about how how long a section wall they wanted to keep. They opted for a section on the western perimeter, near where a local resident was able to flee in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Structures

Two watchtowers are conserved in addition to a set of exhibits illustrating the most impactful moments in the community’s chronicle. As we stroll, the director details the rules: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents required specific authorization to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but not the two, in case they attempted to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but over double the number persons (well over 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Village Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their fields. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand visited every year, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

25 years after unification, the television series, a television program about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Modern Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, cinema room and sizable parking lot – is likely to