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An stream so low you hardly got your ankles wet split a settlement for over four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of local people began documenting their past. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite finished. Telling the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

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

Past Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the manner of the residents socializing in the very same tavern, attending the very same church and enrolling their kids to the same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians put up timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the entire village, setting up their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to pull back back over the creek. For a period, villagers could still jump across, though as controls became stricter they were required to show identity papers, although all knew who they were, and to return at evening.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and calling out were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a western villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a large part of his working life building it. Locals were consulted early on about how what length of barrier they desired to preserve. They selected a section on the west edge, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

A pair of observation towers are maintained in addition to a series of displays showing the most dramatic moments in the hamlet’s past. As we stroll, the director lists the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Farmers had to obtain particular approval to care for their crops; the spouse could use the combine harvester but not the two, for fear that they tried to flee. Armed guards kept guard.

Wider Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but over two times more persons (more than 300) died seeking to cross it in rural areas than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director explains.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of destination. About 15k came to visit each year, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is likely to