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A brook so low you scarcely got your feet wet separated a settlement for in excess of four decades. By an accident of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a partition. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own wall was torn down, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of local people set about commemorating their heritage. The effort is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not completely ready. Speaking to the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

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

Past Origins

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for assigning all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals socializing in the same inn, going to the same place of worship and placing their kids to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Then came the global conflict. The moment they came, the Soviet forces erected timber poles by the creek. For a annual period they seized the entire village, creating their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a time, residents could continue to hop over, though as controls became stricter they were required to display ID, despite the fact that everyone understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Measures

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with mines, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were banned. A female resident was added to a Stasi monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a West German villager who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his professional career building it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how much structure they wanted to preserve. They selected a section on the western perimeter, close to where a villager succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the boundary was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are preserved alongside a series of exhibits showing the most significant dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to tend to their fields; the partner could use the harvesting machine but not the pair, in case they sought to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between West Germany and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most, but more than two times more persons (well over 300) were killed trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adapted to residing in the ambiguous area between a pair of belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They did not supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of destination. About 15k visited every year, binoculars in possession, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a imaginary hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Modern Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, shop, movie theater and big car park – is likely to