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A creek so shallow you barely got your ankles wet separated a village for in excess of four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, fields and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own wall was breached, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of local people began documenting their history. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Addressing the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which tore families asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family best known for giving all its men the name Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the locals drinking in the identical inn, attending the very same religious building and placing their kids to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Split

Then came the global conflict. The moment they appeared, the Russians put up timber poles by the creek. For a year they took over the entire hamlet, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a while, residents could continue to jump across, though as restrictions increased they were required to present identification, even though everyone understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could continue to see each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were banned. One woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for answering “back at you” to a western villager who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me narratives including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his occupational time building it. Residents were consulted early on about how much wall they desired to preserve. They chose a stretch on the western perimeter, near where a villager succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the border was heavily reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

Two guard towers are maintained together with a series of displays showing the most dramatic events in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to care for their fields; the partner could operate the agricultural equipment but never the two, for fear that they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers stood watch.

Broader Background

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but in excess of two times more individuals (more than 300) were killed attempting to pass over it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern tells me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, the director states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately 15,000 visited annually, optical devices in hand, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a television program about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh interest.

Current Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, cinema room and big parking lot – is expected to