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A brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a community for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, pastures and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own wall was opened, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a group of local people set about memorialising their heritage. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not entirely finished. Telling the villagers who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an brutal division, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which tore families into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Past Background

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the locals gathering in the identical inn, going to the same place of worship and sending their kids to the very same educational institution.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they came, the Russians installed wooden posts by the stream. For a annual period they seized the whole hamlet, setting up their command in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a time, residents could continue to jump across, though as controls increased they were obliged to present identity papers, although all was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Increase of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. One woman was added to a GDR intelligence monitoring list for responding “same to you” to a western local who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his occupational time developing it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how what length of barrier they desired to keep. They opted for a stretch on the west perimeter, close to where one of their own was able to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, following which the boundary was heavily fortified.

Conserved Installations

A pair of observation towers are maintained together with a series of exhibits showing the most impactful events in the community’s history. As we walk, Lebergen details the rules: no one could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to tend to their crops; the partner could operate the combine harvester but never the pair, in case they attempted to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Broader Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the GDR stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but over double the number people (more than 300) died trying to cross it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They did not supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. Roughly 15,000 visited every year, optical devices in hand, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and big car park – is expected to