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A stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a community for in excess of four decades. By an accident of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers dubbed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising History

Months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of local people started memorialising their past. The work is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an cruel division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

Past Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals socializing in the very same inn, visiting the same place of worship and placing their kids to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russians installed timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the whole community, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to pull back across the creek. For a time, locals could continue to cross over, though as controls tightened they were forced to show ID, even though each person knew who they were, and to come back at night.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could still observe each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was put on a East German secret police watch list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I heard accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his professional career developing it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how how long a section structure they wished to preserve. They chose a section on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where a local resident managed to escape in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was substantially reinforced.

Maintained Structures

2 observation towers are conserved together with a series of displays illustrating the most significant moments in the village’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: no one could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents required special permission to look after their fields; the partner could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances the two, in case they sought to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Wider Context

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most, but more than twice as many people (exceeding 300) were killed trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the metropolis. the director informs me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit annually, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and large vehicle area – is probable to