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A stream so narrow you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a community for over four decades. By an accident of geography, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops called it Small Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own wall was opened, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a assembly of residents started documenting their history. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Telling the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal division, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Background

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for assigning all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals socializing in the same tavern, attending the identical church and enrolling their young ones to the very same school.

After the War Division

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the stream. For a year they took over the whole village, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a time, villagers could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were forced to display ID, although all was aware who they were, and to come back at night.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could still view each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was added to a Stasi watch list for responding “likewise” to a West German resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I heard accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his working life creating it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how what length of structure they wanted to maintain. They selected a stretch on the western edge, adjacent to where a local resident was able to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Structures

Two observation towers are preserved in addition to a series of tableaux depicting the most significant moments in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to look after their produce; the partner could use the harvesting machine but never the two, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but in excess of two times more persons (more than 300) were killed trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Roughly fifteen thousand came to see every year, binoculars in hand, to look – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and sizable car park – is probable to