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A stream so shallow you barely got your ankles wet divided a settlement for over four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, fields and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own division was breached, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of residents started documenting their history. The project is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not completely ready. Telling the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel separation, which pulled households apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were observers of an inhuman separation, which ripped households apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most famous for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the oddity did not stand in the path of the locals drinking in the identical tavern, visiting the identical religious building and placing their kids to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Russians erected wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they seized the complete community, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to retreat back over the brook. For a period, locals could still hop over, though as controls tightened they were forced to show ID, even though each person understood who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was erected, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could continue to observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. A local woman was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a West German villager who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard accounts such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated much of his working life creating it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how what length of structure they wanted to preserve. They selected a portion on the west perimeter, near where one of their own was able to flee in the dead of night with a scaling tool, subsequently the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Conserved Installations

A pair of watchtowers are preserved in addition to a collection of exhibits illustrating the most significant events in the community’s chronicle. As we move, Lebergen lists the restrictions: nobody could approach 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed special permission to look after their fields; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, for fear that they attempted to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Broader Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but more than double the number individuals (well over 300) were killed trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that almost all of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or skilled workers, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between two political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They neither backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of destination. Roughly 15k came to see each year, optical devices in their hands, 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 unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Present-Day Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and large car park – is probable to