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A stream so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a community for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

Several months after their own division was torn down, and before their country had reunified in 1990, a group of residents began commemorating their heritage. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not completely ready. Speaking to the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which tore households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the identical pub, visiting the very same place of worship and sending their children to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russians erected timber poles by the creek. For a year they occupied the entire village, creating their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to pull back across the creek. For a while, villagers could continue to jump across, though as limitations increased they were forced to show identification, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The residents could still view each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side signaling and calling out were forbidden. One woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for answering “back at you” to a western villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

It was related to me accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his working life building it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how what length of wall they wanted to preserve. They opted for a portion on the western edge, close to where a local resident succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the boundary was heavily fortified.

Conserved Installations

A pair of observation towers are preserved alongside a set of tableaux illustrating the most impactful events in the village’s past. As we stroll, Lebergen enumerates the rules: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to look after their produce; the partner could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances both, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Wider Perspective

The border between West Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but over two times more persons (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director tells me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They neither backed the communist regime nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. Approximately 15k came to visit annually, optical devices in possession, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a TV series about a fictional village similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, movie theater and large car park – is likely to