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A brook so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet split a community for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own division was opened, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers set about commemorating their heritage. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary 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 the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely ready. Telling the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an brutal split, which tore families apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most famous for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the locals gathering in the same inn, visiting the very same church and placing their children to the very same school.

Following WWII Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the entire community, creating their command in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw back over the stream. For a period, locals could still jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to present ID, even though each person understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The residents could still observe each other by climbing hills, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were banned. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “same to you” to a western local who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me narratives such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Villagers were asked early on about how much wall they desired to preserve. They chose a stretch on the west perimeter, close to where a villager succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the frontier was significantly fortified.

Maintained Buildings

2 watchtowers are maintained in addition to a series of tableaux illustrating the most significant dates in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed special permission to look after their crops; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but never the pair, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Context

The frontier between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but over double the number individuals (well over 300) died seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They neither supported the socialist government nor opposed it, the director states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of site of interest. Approximately 15,000 came to visit every year, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is expected to