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An creek so low you barely got your feet wet divided a village for over four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and stunning scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Several months after their own division was torn down, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of villagers began memorialising their past. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Addressing the locals who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel split, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Past Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the identical tavern, visiting the very same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the identical learning center.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops installed timber poles by the stream. For a year they took over the entire community, creating their headquarters in a house on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a time, residents could still cross over, though as controls became stricter they were forced to present ID, although all was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Boundary Measures

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could still view each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were banned. A female resident was placed on a Stasi monitoring list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his occupational time creating it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how how long a section structure they wanted to preserve. They selected a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, near where one of their own was able to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, after which the frontier was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of watchtowers are maintained in addition to a set of displays showing the most significant moments in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the border. Farmers needed specific authorization to care for their produce; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but not the two, lest they tried to flee. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but more than double the number individuals (well over 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the settlement became a kind of site of interest. About fifteen thousand came to visit annually, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Modern Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is probable to