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An creek so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a village for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of residents started documenting their heritage. The work is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely prepared. Telling the residents who experienced the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which tore families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which tore households apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Context

Even at its creation in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals gathering in the identical tavern, attending the identical religious building and enrolling their kids to the same school.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the brook. For a year they seized the entire village, creating their command in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces persuaded them to retreat back over the creek. For a time, residents could still hop over, though as controls tightened they were required to present ID, despite the fact that everyone understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Increase of Frontier Measures

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could continue to observe each other by ascending hills, but on the east side waving and calling out were forbidden. One woman was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for responding “same to you” to a West German resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me stories such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his professional career creating it. Villagers were asked in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wished to keep. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian fringe, near where a local resident succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the boundary was heavily reinforced.

Maintained Structures

A pair of watchtowers are preserved together with a series of displays depicting the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed special permission to tend to their crops; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but never the two, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the GDR ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but over two times more individuals (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. the director informs me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their farms. They did not backed the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Roughly 15k came to visit each year, binoculars in hand, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up community similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is probable to