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A stream so low you barely got your ankles wet separated a community for in excess of four decades of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by evergreen groves, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was marked first by a barrier and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

Several months after their own division was breached, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a assembly of residents set about documenting their heritage. The work is close to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Speaking to the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel split, which tore relatives into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house best known for assigning all its men the name Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk never stood in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the identical pub, attending the very same religious building and sending their children to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Then came the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the entire community, creating their headquarters in a house on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw across the creek. For a time, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to display identification, although all was aware who they were, and to return at after dark.

Escalation of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could still see each other by climbing elevations, but on the east side signaling and yelling were banned. One woman was put on a Stasi watch list for responding “back at you” to a western resident who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me narratives like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his occupational time developing it. Locals were consulted at an early stage about how what length of wall they desired to maintain. They selected a portion on the western edge, near where a villager was able to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Maintained Installations

Two watchtowers are preserved in addition to a series of displays showing the most significant events in the village’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern enumerates the rules: no one could approach 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required special permission to tend to their fields; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but not the pair, in case they tried to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Larger Context

The border between Western Germany and the East Germany stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but more than two times more individuals (well over 300) died attempting to cross it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit annually, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, caused new curiosity.

Modern Changes

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and sizable car park – is probable to