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An creek so low you hardly got your feet wet divided a village for over four decades of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by pine forests, pastures and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was opened, and even before their country had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people set about documenting their heritage. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely ready. Addressing the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Background

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals drinking in the very same tavern, attending the identical church and placing their kids to the identical school.

Following WWII Division

Then came the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops installed wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they occupied the complete community, establishing their control center in a house on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to present identification, although everyone understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with landmines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still see each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side signaling and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was added to a Stasi monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a western local who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how much barrier they wished to maintain. They opted for a portion on the west perimeter, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, after which the boundary was substantially fortified.

Maintained Structures

2 guard towers are conserved in addition to a set of displays showing the most significant dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we move, the director enumerates the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to look after their produce; the husband or wife could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances the two, lest they attempted to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most, but over double the number individuals (well over 300) died seeking to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. the director informs me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They neither supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. About 15k came to visit each year, optical devices in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, led to new attention.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, film screening area and large parking lot – is expected to