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An creek so shallow you barely got your ankles wet divided a community for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and stunning scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span 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 barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own division was opened, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a group of villagers set about documenting their history. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not entirely finished. Speaking to the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which pulled families apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity never stood in the manner of the residents gathering in the same tavern, attending the same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

After the War Split

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Russians installed wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the whole hamlet, establishing their control center in a building on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to pull back across the creek. For a period, locals could continue to jump across, though as controls became stricter they were forced to present identity papers, even though each person understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could still observe each other by climbing hills, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were banned. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a West German resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his professional career building it. Residents were consulted in the initial phases about how much structure they desired to keep. They chose a section on the western fringe, near where a local resident was able to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the border was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are maintained alongside a set of displays showing the most significant moments in the community’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents needed particular approval to care for their fields; the husband or wife could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances both, in case they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Context

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the greatest, but over double the number individuals (exceeding 300) died trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director tells me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Hamlet Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and looking after their land. They nor did they backed the socialist government nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the village became a type of destination. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit every year, binoculars in hand, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Current Changes

The opening of the new museum – with a restaurant, boutique, cinema room and sizable car park – is expected to