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An brook so narrow you barely got your feet wet split a village for more than four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, fields and stunning scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was marked first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own barrier was breached, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people set about commemorating their heritage. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely finished. Speaking to the villagers who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

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

Bygone Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most famous for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the very same pub, visiting the identical religious building and enrolling their children to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they seized the complete village, creating their control center in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a time, villagers could still hop over, though as limitations tightened they were forced to show ID, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The villagers could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. One woman was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a large part of his working life building it. Residents were asked early on about how much wall they wanted to keep. They chose a section on the Bavarian fringe, close to where a villager managed to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Installations

A pair of watchtowers are preserved alongside a set of displays depicting the most significant moments in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their produce; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but never the pair, in case they attempted to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but in excess of double the number persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They nor did they backed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to see annually, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a imaginary community like Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and sizable vehicle area – is expected to