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An creek so narrow you barely got your feet wet separated a settlement for in excess of four decades. By an accident of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops called it Small Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own division was torn down, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of local people started commemorating their history. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely prepared. Telling the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Past Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most famous for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk never stood in the manner of the residents socializing in the identical inn, going to the very same church and placing their children to the identical school.

Post-War Separation

Next arrived the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they seized the whole hamlet, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to withdraw across the brook. For a period, locals could still jump across, though as limitations tightened they were forced to display ID, although each person was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Escalation of Border Measures

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could still see each other by scaling slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. A local woman was added to a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “likewise” to a western local who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told accounts such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Locals were asked early on about how how long a section barrier they desired to preserve. They selected a stretch on the west fringe, adjacent to where a villager managed to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was heavily fortified.

Preserved Buildings

2 observation towers are preserved alongside a set of displays depicting the most significant events in the hamlet’s history. As we move, Lebergen lists the rules: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their crops; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but not the pair, in case they attempted to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Context

The boundary between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but over two times more people (more than 300) were killed trying to pass over it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who accommodated to living in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They nor did they backed the communist regime nor fought it, the director states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Roughly 15,000 came to visit annually, viewing tools in their hands, to look – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a imaginary community like Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, boutique, film screening area and large car park – is likely to