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An brook so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet split a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, fields and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a group of residents set about documenting their heritage. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Speaking to the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were observers of an cruel division, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for giving all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk never stood in the way of the residents drinking in the very same inn, visiting the identical place of worship and placing their children to the identical learning center.

Post-War Separation

Then came the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops installed wood stakes by the stream. For a year they took over the whole community, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans urged them to pull back across the brook. For a period, villagers could still cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to present identity papers, even though everyone knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could continue to view each other by scaling slopes, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was put on a Stasi monitoring list for responding “back at you” to a Bavarian local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told narratives including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his occupational time creating it. Residents were polled in the initial phases about how much barrier they wished to maintain. They chose a portion on the western fringe, close to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the border was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

A pair of guard towers are preserved together with a series of tableaux showing the most significant dates in the community’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to care for their produce; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but never the pair, lest they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number individuals (more than 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Lebegern informs me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the village became a type of destination. Roughly 15k visited every year, binoculars in hand, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and large vehicle area – is expected to