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An brook so narrow you barely got your feet wet divided a village for over four decades. By an accident of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by pine forests, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Months after their own division was breached, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers started documenting their heritage. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite ready. Telling the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel division, which tore households apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

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

Bygone Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house best known for giving all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals gathering in the identical pub, visiting the identical place of worship and enrolling their kids to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they came, the Russians installed wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they seized the whole hamlet, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to retreat back over the creek. For a time, villagers could still cross over, though as limitations tightened they were forced to present identity papers, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Escalation of Border Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could continue to see each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and shouting were prohibited. One woman was added to a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard accounts such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Locals were polled early on about how how long a section wall they wanted to maintain. They opted for a section on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where a villager was able to get away in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the boundary was significantly fortified.

Maintained Installations

Two guard towers are conserved in addition to a collection of tableaux depicting the most significant moments in the community’s history. As we move, the director enumerates the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to care for their crops; the spouse could work the combine harvester but never the pair, lest they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but more than twice as many persons (more than 300) were killed attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between a pair of belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They nor did they endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately 15,000 visited each year, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and big vehicle area – is expected to